
(lass £i^ 



Book -£00-^41- 



I'RKSKSTIID IIY 






CA 



^ '/., A r 



/ 




AVi Ilium Cooper at the ajje of 50. 
Cooperstown. 



The Founder of 



To Commemorate the Foundation of the 
Village of Cooperstown and its Corporate 
Existence of One hundred years^ this 
Memorial Celebration was held August 
4th-I0th, J907. . . - . 




PRINTBD BT 

TELB OTSSGO REPUBLilOXN. 

OOOPBRSTOWN, M^. 7. 



Record of the Memorial Cele* 

bration held in Gooperstown, 

August 4th-10th, 1907. 



♦•HISTORIC COOPERSTOWN," was the key-note of the re- 
cent celebration held in the Village during- the week of August 
4th,— 10th, 1907. 

To commemorate its foundation, to keep in remembrance the 
self-denying struggles of its hardy pioneers who sowed the seed 
•which we now reap, and to honor the memory of one whose 
genius has given to Cooperstown and Otsego Lake a world-wide 
fame, was the object of the recent festival. 

To this intent a general invitation was issued to all the de- 
scendants of the first settlers, as well as to those to whom the 
charm of natural scenery, the beauties of the lake and woods 
ever appeals and lastly to the successors in literature of the 
first of American novelists to unite in celebrating an occasion 
which had a rare combination of attractions. 

The result is believed to have been most satisfactory to all 
participating — the weather was an ideal summer week; the 
programme varied and complete and it was carried out without 
delay or failure. It is given entire on another page. 

The first meeting to effect an organization was held on the 
evening April 5th, 1907, at which the general plan of the^cele- 
bration was outlined and a series of resolutions offered by the 
Rev. Ralph Birdsall and unanimously adopted as follows: 

Resolved, That a centennial of the village of Cooperstown be 
marked by a special celebration during the first week in Au- 
gust, 1907; Sunday, August 4th to Saturday, August 10th in- 
clusive. 

Resolved, That for the preparation and carrying out of plans 
for such centennial, the Village President appoint a committee 
of fifteen representative citizens, himself to be in addition, a 
member and the chairman; the committee to act in co-operation 
■with the permanent civic and social organizations of the village. 
Resolved, That the Village President, in consultation with 



6 THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 

the general committee, shall appoint sub-committee?, either 
■within the membership of the general committee or otherwise, 
which sub-committees, severally, shall secure to the centennial 
celebration elements that may be loosely defined as: First, ar- 
tistic and decorative; second, literary; third, historical; fourth, 
religious; the first to include some general scheme of decoration, 
parades, tableaux and pageantry; the second to signalize the 
unique position of Cooperstown in the development of American 
literature; the third to make prominent the historical element 
which necessarily belongs to a centennial; the fourth to provide 
for a special religious observance on the first day of the centen- 
nial week, through the various Christian congregations, either 
separately or collectively. 

Resolved, That the general committee shall have authority 
by majority vote, to amend or enlarge the outline here pre- 
sented. 

In accordance with the foregoing resolutions, the following 
general committee was appointed. The first meeting was 
held in the Village Hall on Thursday evening, at which sub- 
committees and more definite plans of action were taken up: 

Charles A. Francis, Village President. 

M. E. Lippitt, President of the Board of Trade. 

E. D. Stocker, Chief of the Cooperstown Fire Department. 

Lynn J. Arnold, President of the Board of Education. 

Harris L Cooke, President of the Mohican Club. 

John K. Doan, Commodore of the Otsego Lake Boat Club. 

Henry D. Sill, President of the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
ciation. 

Dr. E. L. Pitcher, Master of Otsego Lodge, No. 138, F. & 
A. M. 

J. C. Peaslee, Commander of Cooper Tent, K. O. T. M. 

L. N. Wood, President of the Otsego Lake Transit Company. 

A. H. Crist, Editor of the Otsego Farmer. 

Clarence W. Davidson, Editor of the Otsego Republican. 

George H. Carley, Editor of the Freeman's Journal. 

The Rev. Ralph Birdsall, Edward S. Clark, Edwin S. Bundy, 
the Rev. S. S. Conger, John F. Brady, J. A. M. Johnston, 
G. Pomeroy Keese, W. Festus Morgan, Frank Mulkins, A. S. 
Phinney, Russel Warren, George H. White. 

The week following more definite action was taken and 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 



S. L. Warrin, 
Frank Waller, 
Clarence G. Cook, 
J. A. M. Johnston, 



organization perfected bj the appointment of the various work* 
ing committees, viz: 

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 

Rkv. Rai,ph Birdsall, Chairman. 

M. E. Lippitt, E. S. Bundy, Frank Mulkins, 

Harris L. Cooke, Sec'y. 

A. S. Phinnej, General Secretary. 

L. N. Wood, General Treasurer. 

DECORATION. 

R. G. White, Chairman. 

Walter C. Stokes, Orange L.VanHorne, 
Bert G. Tracy, Herman Reisman, 
Frank Lettis, M. Hanlon, 

Edwards S. Newell. 

DEPARTMENT OF PARADE. 

E. D. Stocker, Chairman. 

Hugh G. Lynch, John S. Byard, M. E. Lippitt, 

C. W. Davidson, J. C. Peaslee, W. A. Grover, 

E. L. Pitcher, M. J. Multer. 

DEPARTMENT OF TABLEAUX. 

Lou Sherwood, Chairman. 

LeGrand Brainard, 
C. W. G. Ross, 

LITERARY. 
John Worthington, Chairman. 
James Fenimore Cooper, Rev. P. A. H. Brown, R. M. Bush, 

W. Henry Merchant, VV. Scott Root, 
Albert Lane, S. L. Warrin, 

W. D. Johnson, L. E. Walrath, 

Charles T. Brewer, Rev. W. W. Lord, 
S. S. Bowne. 

HISTORICAL. 

G. P. Keese, Chairman. 

Waldo Cory, 

R. H. White, 



A. J. Butler, 

B. S. Morgan, 



G. P. Keese, 
G. Hyde Clarke, 
Horace M. Pierce, 
A. J. Butler, 
Rev. T. A. Early, 



Harold T. Basinger, 
Frank Hale. 



John M. Bowers, 
John Worthington, 



D. J. McGown, 
George Brooks. 



THE CCMDPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 



A. S. Phinney, 
Theo. Ernst, 
1/. A. Carter, 
vj. Hjde Clarke, 



Lee B. Cruttenden, John McCabc 



Rev. E. A. Perry, 
Theo. C.Turner, 
N. W. Cole. 

LOAN EXHIBIT. 



Joel G. White, 
Dr. A. N. Beach, 



E. D. BoDEN, Chairman. 

Fred G. Lee, W. H. Collins, 

Harvey K. Murdock, Rev. T. B. Roberts, 

DEPARTMENT OF SOUVENIRS. 

E. S. Brockham, Chairman. 



S. Campbell, 
G. Tennant. 



W. J. Ashton, 
G. M. Jarvis, 



Rev. 



W. P. Doubleday, 
J. H. Mood, 

RELIGIOUS. 

S. S. Conger, Chairman. 



Rev. Ralph Birdsall, Rev. T. B. Roberts, 
Rev. Thos. A. Early, Henry D. Sill. 



Rev. E. A.Perry, 
Rev. C. W. Negus, 



John K. Doan, 
A. P. Alffer. 



J. A. M. Johnston, 

L. N. Wood, 
Edward S. Clark, 
James Burton, 
Geoge H. White, 



Geoge H. Carley, 
C. W. Davidson, 
James Austin, 



C.W. Davidson, 
George H. Carley, 
C. B. Cooley. 



nNANCE. 
E. S. BuNDY, Chairman. 

E. L. Pitcher. 

M. E. Lippitt, 
Frank Mulkins, 
John F. Brady, 

Allen Gallup. 

PUBLICITY. 
Walter Littell, Chairman. 

F. L. Quaif, 
Clarence Fay, 
Fred Fuller. 

PRINTING. 
H. Crist, Chairman. 
B. W. Dewar, 
Dewitt Delong, 



F. P. Tanner, 
L. A. Cossaart. 



W. C. Fowler, 
E. A. Rounds, 
C. W. G. Ros^ 



J. B. Conklingf, 
W. D. Burditt, 
W. W. Hovey, 
W. H. Michaels, 



George R. Hall, 
L. E. Saxtod, 



Gerald Ellsworth, 
W. F. Wagner, 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 



W. H. Martin, 

J. K. Doao, 

L. B. Cruttenden, 



N. P. Willis, 
Datus K. Siver, 
J. E. Derrick. 



Henry HofiFman, 
Justin Lange, 
John Cronauer, 



J. H. King, 
George W. Lang, 
E. A. Potter. 



PROGRAMME 

A. J. BuTLEK, Chairman. 

W. H. Doubleday, Jr., 
William Fay, 
D. Clyde Rose. 

TRANSPORTATION. 

Edward Martin, Chairman, 

Charles H. Mason, 
Fred Lettis, 



Frank Hale, 
Ralph Ellsworth, 



Li. M. Barnum, 
LaVern In galls, 



C. R. Hartson, 
George Strachan, 



HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS. 
M. HanIwON, Chairman. 

George Groat, 

L. H. Spencer, 

M. H. Wedderspoon. 

BUILDINGS AND BOOTHS. 

B. G. Johnson, Chairman. 

J. W. Shaw, Harold T. Basinger, 

Edward Jackson, Geo. Farquharson, 

CENTENNIAL BALL. 



A. — Daughters of American Revolution. 
B. — Knights of the Maccabees. 

MUSIC. 



F. V. Schenk, 
W. M, Bronner, 
C. S. Derrick, 



D. H. Gregory, 

E. S. Clark, 
L. A. Kaple, 
A. C. Shipman, 



A dbJ. Allez, Chairman. 

E. D. Stocker, C. A. Francis, 

Chas. A. Scott, Henry Schneider, 

Geo. L. Gould. 



HOSPITALITY. 

L. J. Arnold, Chairman. 

Harris L. Cooke, 
Chas. A. Francis, 
H. K. Murdock, 
D. A. Avery, 



J. A, M. Johnston, 
Fred G. Lee, 
A. S. Potts, 
N. P. Willis. 



10 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 



James J. Byard, Jr., 
R. H. White, 
M. F. Augur, 
DeWitt Kckler, 
W. H. Bundy, 
Herman Reisman, 
F. M. Hotaling, 
Michael P. Kraham, 
Chatfield Leonard, 
H. I. Russell, 
John C. Smith, 



Frank Lettis, 
M. H. Brenner, 
D. J. McGown, 
F. L. Quaif, 
Erastus Ray, 
R. I. Bolton, 
Geo. L. Gould, 
Thos. W. Kelsey, 
Geo. W. Morris, 
D. E. Siver, 
Harry Farquharson, 



Frank Murdock, 
H. L. Brazee, 
W. L. McEwad, 
E. J. Arnold, 
E. A. Potter, 
Irwin Bailey, 
Loren Knapp, 
W. D. Burditt, 
Peter Parshall, 
M. R. Stocker, 
George Misson. 



L. J. Arnold, 
Chas. T. Brewer, 



A. J. Telfer, 
W. H. Yates. 



F. Ambrose Clark, 
A. S. Potts, 
Wm. Beattie, 



SCHOOL EXHIBIT. 

M. J. MuLTER, Chairman. 

W. F. Morgan, 
Lee B. Cruttenden, 

PHOTOGRAPHS. 

J. "W. Tucker, Chairman. 

J. B. Slote, 

FIREWORKS. 
Geo. H. White, Chairman, 
Waldo Johnston, 



John Pank, 
Wilson McGown. 



ATHLETICS. 
W. H. Martin, Chairman. 

J. K. Doan, W. F. Morgan, 

Henry D. Sill. R. R. Converse, 

Harold T. Basinger, Henry Schneider. 

REGATTA. 

John K. Doan, Chairman. 

Wm. Constable, L. N. Wood, 

F. B. Shipman, Stephen C. Clark, 

Dr. A. N. Beach, F. W. Spraker, 



S. S. Conger, 
J. H. Moon. 



C. F. Zabriskie, 



H. T. Basinger, 
D. R. Dorn, 



W. P. K. Fuller, 
Carey Jackson, 



A. H. Gazlej, 
R. Warren, 
James Burton. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. » 

INFORiULATION. 

E. S. Brockham, Chairman. 

Geo. L. Gould, F. M. Shumway, Geo. N. Smith, 

I. E. Sylvester, A. C. Shipman, William Cobbett. 

These committees held meetings from time to time, reporting 
weekly to the executive board, which held stated sessions on 
Thursday evenings. The final arrangements having been com- 
pleted the following programme was issued by the committee in 
charge which was carried out in full and without change. 



PROGRAMME. 



SUNDAY 

Christ Church. 

7:30 a. m., Holy Communion. 
10:15 a. m., Morning Prayer. 

10:45 a. m., Holy Communion: Eyre service in E flat, and ser- 
mon by the Rector. 
7:30 p. m.. Choral Evensong; Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, 
Stainer in B flat; Anthem, Great and Marvelous, from 
Gaul's "Holy City." 
Organ Recital by Mr. Andrew deJ. Allez at the conclusion of 
evening service: 

Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Bach 

Cantilene Salome 

Festival Fantasia, H. Jul. Tschirch 

Andantino m D flat, Lemare 

March in D, H. Smart 

Methodist Church. 

10:45 a. m.— Public Worship. Sermon by the pastor, "Remem- 
ber the Daysot Old." 

12 m.— Bible School. 

7:30 p. m. — The congregation will unite with the Presbyterian 
and Baptist Churches in a Union Service at the Baptist 
Church. 

Presbyterian Church. 

Service at 10:45 a. m., with sermon by the pastor, Rev. S. S. 



12 THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 

Conger. Subject, "Things that have lasted 100 years.'' 
Appropriate music 

Universalist Church. 

Rev. E. A. Perry will preach Sunday morning at the Univer- 
salist Church at Cooperstown and at 3:20 p. m. in the 
Universalist Church at Fly Creek upon the topic. "Some Sig- 
nificant Changes in the Faith, Practice and Spirit of Chris- 
tians during the Century." 

Baptist Church. 

Usual services in the morning. Historical sermon by the 
pastor, Rev. Cyrus W. Negus. 

Union service in the evening, in which the PresbyteriaOi 
Methodist and Baptist Churches join. Sermon by the Rev. 
W. B. Wallace, D. D., pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist 
Church, Utica, N. Y. 

Church of Our Lady of the Lake. 
(Catholic) 
Rev. Thomas A. Early, Pastor; Rev. D. Schane, acting 
pastor; Mass at 7 a. ra. ; Mass, Sermon, Benediction of the 
Blessed Sacrament, 11:30 a. m. 

Centennial Exercises 

3 p. m. — Cooper Grounds, Concert of Sacred Music by the Tenth 

Regiment Band of Albany. 

4 p. m. — Cooper Grounds, Religious Exercises. 

Anthem, Stainer's "Lord, Thou art God," by a chorus of 
SO voices, under the direction of Mr. Andrew deJ. Allez. 
Hymn, "America," sung by the congregation, accompanied 
by the Tenth Regiment Band. 

Invocation, Rev. C. W. Negus. 

Address of Welcome, 

Mr. Charles A. Francis, Village President. 
Introduction of Chairman, 

Rev. Ralph Birdsall, Chairman of Centennial Committee. 
Introduction of Speakers, 

Rev. Sidney S. Conger, Chairman of Religious Exercises 
Address, "The Religion of the Last Century," Rev. W. B. 
Wallace, D. D., pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church, 
Utica. 
Anthem, Sydenham's "Great is the Lord, and Marvelous." 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. iZ 

Address, "The Religious Outlook of the Future," 

Rt. Rev. Henry C. Potter, D. D., Bishop of New York. 
Hymn, "Coronation," sung by the congregation, 

accompanied by the band. 
Benediction, Rev. E. A. Perry. 

7:30 p. m. — Baptist Church, Union Service, sermon by Rev. W. 
B. Wallace, D. D., of Utica. 

MONDAY 

7 a. m. — Salute and Ringing of bells. 

9 a. m. — Young Men's Christian Association Building, Opening 

of Loan Exhibition. 

10 a. m. to 12 — At the band stand. Concert by Tenth Regiment 

Band. 
2 p. m. — Athletic Field, Baseball, Cooperstown vs. Olympias of 

Utica. 
4 p. m. — Court House Grounds, Historical Exercises. 

Overture, Tenth Regiment Band. 

Introduction of Chairman, 

Rev. Ralph Birdsall, for Centennial Committee. 
Introduction of Speakers, 

Mr. G. Pomeroy Keese, Chairman of Historical Exercises. 
Address, "The Upper Susquehanna in the Border Wars," 

Mr. Francis W. Halsey 
Selection, Tenth Regiment Band. 

Address, "Early Days of Cooperstown," 

Mr. G. Pomeroy Keese. 
Selection, Tenth Regiment Band. 

Address, "Noted Men of Otsego during its Early Years," 

Hon. Walter H. Bunn. 
Selection, Tenth Regiment Band. 

8 p. m. — On Otsego Lake, Illuminated Launch Parade. Band. 

Concert at Lake front. 

9 p. m. — Exhibition of Moving Pictures on Main street. 

TUESDAY 

Annual OtKgo Lake Regatta 
9 a.'m. — Sailing Race. 

9:30 to 11 a. m. — Single Scull Races for Women, Men and Boys 
under sixteen. 

11 a. m. — Launch Parade. 



H THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 

2 p. m. — Double Scull Races for Women, Men, Boys and Mixed 

Teams. 

3 p. m. — Launch Races in Three Classes. 

Concerts at Lake front by Tenth Regiment Band. 
4:30 p. tn. — Athletic Grounds, Baseball, Cooperstown vs. Olym- 

pias of Utica. 
9 p. m. — Village Hall, Centennial Ball under the auspices of 

the Daughters of the American Revolution. Tickets, two 

dollars. 

Exhibition of Moving Pictures on Main street. 

WEDNESDAY 

10-11 a. m.— Band Stand, Concert by Tenth Regiment Band. 
11 a. m. to 12 — Cooper Grounds; Basket Ball, Cooperstown vs. 

Oneonta. 
2-4 p. m. — Main Street, Athletic Contests and Track Events: 

100 yards dash; 220 yards dash; 440 yards dash, one-half 

mile run; 220 yards hurdles; relay race; running high 

jump. 
5 p. m. — Exercises at Cooper's grave. The public is requested 

to assemble in the driveway before Christ Church. 

Processional and singing by 'Chorus of 50 village girls of 

Lyric, composed by Mr. Andrew B. Saxton of Oneonta, and 

set to music by Mr. Andrew deJ. Allez, Choirmaster of 

Christ Church. 

Tribute of flowers at Cooper's grave. ": 

Address of Welcome, 

Rev. Ralph Birdsall, rector of Christ Church 

Reading by Rt. Rev. Henry C. Potter, D. D., of a poem 

composed for the occasion by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe. 

"Battle Hymn of the Republic," Tenth Regiment Band. 

The Poem of the Day, read by its author. Rev. Walton W. 

Battershail, D. D., rector of St. Peter's Church, Albany. 

8 p. m. — Band Stand, Concert by Tenth Regiment Band. 

Exhibition of Moving Pictures on Main street. 

9 p. m. — Village Hall, Centennial Ball, under the auspices of 

the Ladies of the Maccabees. Tickets one dollar. 

THURSDAY 

10 a. m. to 12— Band Stand, Concert by Tenth Regiment Band. 
2 p. m. — Parade of Local Organizations, with Historical Floats. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. iS 

Firemen's Inspection 

Grand Marshal Morgan R. Stocker 

Aides, Lynn J. Arnold, Stephen C. Clark, 

Waldo Johnston, R. Grant White, 

Walter W. Stokes, W. Perry Chrisler, 
J. Pier Mason. 

FORMATION 

Line will form on Main street opposite the Court House. 

Cooperstown Police 

Grand Marshal and Staff 

Tenih Regiment Band of Albany 

Cooperstown Fire Department 

James J. Byard, Jr., Chief 

Neptune Steamer Company 

Steamer Hose Company 

Iroquois Hose Company 

Mechanics Hook & Ladder Company 

Edward S. Clark Hose Company 

Drill Corps of the Orphan House of the Holy Saviour. 

HISTORICAL FLOATS AND EXHIBITS 

I. Before the white man came. The red man in his canoe. 

II. General George Washington at Otsego Lake in 1783. 

III. The early white settlers. Log Cabin. Living representa- 
^^ tion of Natty Bumppo, the hero of the Leatherstocking 

Tales. 

IV. Slow motion. Old ox-cart and team. ^^ 

V. Early method of travel. Original old four-horse stage, 
with quaint passengers. 

VI. Fire fighting. The engine, "Neptune," of many years 
ago, accompanied by firemen in the costume of the same 
period." 

VII. "From '61 to '65, and forty years after." Civil war 
memories of Levi C. Turner Post No. 26, Grand Army of 
the Republic, assisted by James F. Clark Camp No. 27, Sons 
of Veterans. 

VIII. Hoppicking, when Otsego controlled the hop market of 
the world. 

IX. "Modern Industry," an allegorical group. 



H THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 

Line of March. Down Main street, to River street, to 
Church, to Pioneer, to Elm, to Chestnut, to Leatherstocking, to 
Court, to Main, to Pine, to Lake, to River, to Main, to the 
Court House. 

4 p. m. — Court House Grounds, Literary Exercises. 

Overture, Tenth Regiment Band. 

Introduction of Chairman 

Rev. Ralph Birdsall, for the Centennial Committee. 

Introduction of Speaker and Poet, 

Hon. John Worthington, Chairman of Literary Committee. 

Address Commemorative of James Fenimore Cooper by 

Prof. Brander Matthews, of Columbia University, New York. 

Selection, Tenth Regiment Band. 

Poem, Mr. Clinton Scollard. 

Selection, Tenth Regiment Band. 

8 p. m. — On Otsego Lake, Exhibition of Paine's Fireworks. 

Band Concert at Lake front. 
9:30 p. m. — Exhibition of Moving Pictures on Main street. 

FRIDAY 

10 a. m. to 12 — Athletic Grounds; Baseball, Cooperstown vs. 

Norwich. ^ 

Tenth Regiment Band. 

11 a. m. — "Camp Nelson," Military Encampment, on Fair 

Grounds of the Second Battalion, Tenth Regiment, Infan- 
try, N. G., N. Y. 

2-4 p. m. — Military Parade, Second Battalion of Tenth Regi- 
ment, Albany. Military Baid. Third Separate Company 
of Oneonta. Line of March same as Thursday. 

6:35 p. m.— Guard Mounting at Polo Grounds, Iroquois Farm. 
Sunset — Battalion parade, on Polo Grounds, Iroquois Farm. 

7:30 r- m.— Retreat. 

8 p. m. — At Band Stand, Concert by Tenth Regiment Band. 
Exhibition of Moving Pictures on Main street. 

10 p. m.— Tattoo. 

10:45 p. m. — Call to quarters. 

11 p. m. — Taps. 

SATURDAY 

At "Camp NeUoo'* 

5 a. m. — Reveille. 

5:15 a. m.— Sick Call. 




The Indian Hunt«r, Cooper Park, Site of Otseco Hall. 




D. A. R. Marker at Oiitlet ot Otsego Lake, Site ol the Clinton Dam, 1779. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL, J7 

5:45 a. m.— Drill Call. 

7 a. m. — Recall from Drill. 
7:30 a. m.— Mess Call. 

8:15 a. m. — Guard Mounting. 

10 a. m.-12— At Band Stand, Concert by Tenth Regiment Band. 

2 p. m. — Parade and drill of Second Battalion on Main street. 

3 p. m. — At Athletic Grounds, Baseball, Cooperstown vs. Nor- 

wich. 
6:35 p. m. — Guard Mounting at Polo Grounds, Iroquois Farm. 

Sunset — Battalion Parade on Polo Grounds, Iroquois Farm. 
7:30 p. m. —Retreat. 

8 p. m. — Exhibition of Moving Pictures on Main street. 

10 p. m.— Tattoo. 

10:45 p. m. — Call to quarters. 

11 p. m.— Taps. 



Centennial Exercises 



Sunday, August 4th, 1907, 

at 
The Cooper Grounds. 



The celebration began Sunday morning in the different 
churches where the exercises were appropriate to the occasion 
and of unusual excellence. 

Rev. Ralph Birdsall gave an excellent address on "Village 
Life " Rev. T. B. Roberts took as his subject "Remember the 
DavsofOld." Rev. Cryus W. Negus oulHued the changes in 
the history of the Baptist church in the village and the vicinity 
for the past century- Rev. ^. A. Perry mentioned "Some 
Significant Changes in the Faith, Practise and Spirit of Chris- 
tians during the Century." Rev. Dr. Schane conducted the 
service in St. Mary's Catholic church. 

Rev. S. S. Conger took as his topic, "Things that have 
endured,'' and made a brief reference to the fact that seven 
years ago the Presbyterian church celebrated its hundredth 
anniversary; the edifice in wuich he preaches is one hundred and 
five years old. It was the first church erected in the village 
and IS the only public building standing that was here a cen- 
tury ago, the building being substantially the same in it pres- 
ent exterior form, the tower being the only exception. 

In the evening union services were held in the Baptist 
Church, at which Rev. Dr. Wallace of Utica preached. In 
Christ Church there was an evensong service under the direction 
of Choirmaster Andrew deJ. Allez. 

The exercises of Sunday afternoon opened with a band 
concert by Collins' Tenth Retriraent Band, of Albany, from the 
platform in Cooper Park. This platform was erected on the 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. J9 

■west side with tbe trees bordering the park as a background, 
and the audience filled the open space in front and to the 
sides, and well under the trees to the north and south. Seats 
were provided for a thousacd people, while as many more found 
seats upon the rising ground to the south of the seats, and 
many hundreds more stood. The concert was of much excel- 
lence. 

At the close of the concert the speakers of the afternoon 
"were escorted to the platform by the local clergy. 

The exercises were opened with an anthem, Stainer's 
"Lord, Thou art God," by a chorus of fifty voices, under the 
direction of Andrew deJ. Allez. This was followed by the 
singing of "America," by the audience. At the conclusion of the 
singing all remained standing while Rev. Cyrus W. Negus, 
pastor of the Baptist church, said this invocation: 

Almighty God, our Father, Thou who art from everlasting 
to everlasting, we invoke Thy presence at this time, as we are 
gathered in Thy name. We thank Thee for Jesus Christ, in 
whom we are one. We thank Thee for the godly men and 
women who in the past laid the foundations upon which the 
superstructures of later years have been reared. We thank 
Thee for the Christian influence of these various churches that 
has prevaded this community through all the years. May Thy 
blessing rest upon Thv servants who shall address us. Grant 
that the messages brought to us at this time may be owned 
of Thee, and that we may honor Thee with our hearts and lives as 
■well as with our lips. We ask all in the name of Christ, Thy 
son, our Saviour. Amen. 

Charles A. Francis, president of the village, then delivered 
an address of welcome, formally opening the Centennial and 
bidding all welcome to the village. Mr. Francis said: 

Fellow Citizens and Lovers of Cooperstown: 
Having the Honor to be the President of this historic and 
romantic village, it gives me great pleasure to speak the first 
words of welcome here and to touch, if I may, the key note of 
this Centennial week, which we begin to celebrate today. 

No other village than ours so happily blends the elements 
of history and romance which conspire to add to this commem- 
oration qualities that are both timely and picturesque. For it 



20 SUNDAY, AUGUST 4, 1907. 

IS here, at Otseofo Lake, we may say, that George Washington, 
the first hero of American history, stands upon common ground 
■with Natty Bumppo, the first hero of American romance. 
Careful readers of history will tell you that George Washington 
was here. All lovers of Leatherstocking Tales are sure that 
Natty Bumppo was here. That both belong together here 
typifies more than might be expressed in many words. 

To the celebration of all that Cooperstown thus gathers 
from history and romance, 1 welcome you. With so much 
preface it is my duty and pleasure to introduce the Chairman of 
the Cooperstown Centennial, the Rev. Ralph Birdsall. 

Rev. Mr. Birdsall then introduced the chairman of the 
afternoon, Rev. Sidney S. Conger, pastor of the Presbyterian 
Church saying: 

The duty which the Village President has assigned to me 
is easily fulfilled, for this occasion, by introducing one whose 
especial fitness to preside at these religious exercises of the 
Cooperstown Centeanial is obvious. It gives me great pleasure 
to introduce the modern representative of the rtjligious organi- 
zation earliest established in this village, the Pastor of the Pres- 
byterian Church, the Rev. Sidney Seabury Conger. 

Rev. Mr. Conger then introduced Rev. Dr. Wallace and in 
doing so said: 

We have hoped to make this celebration a height from 
which we may look both backward and forward, and catch 
whatever of encouragement or warning there may be either in 
the past or in the future. We have sought for clear eyes to see, 
the clear voices to interpret the vision. 

I am glad to introduce to you the Rev. William B. Wallace, 
D. D., of Utica, who will speak to us on "The Religious Progress, 
of the Past Century in America." 




Rev. Dr. Wallace Speaking. 




Rishop Potter Speaking. 



THE RELIGION OF THE LAST CENTURY/' 

By Rev. W. B. Wallace^ D. D. 



The story is told of a ccuntryman who, being asked to ride 
in a merry-go-round, replied, "No, thank you. When I rides 
I want to be going somewhere." That illustrates the spirit of 
the men of the 19th century. They wanted to be going some- 
where. Kipling, in his "Explorer" splendidly described them: 

"A voice as bad as conszience rang interminable changes 
on one everlasting whisper, day and night repeated so, some- 
thing hidden, go and find it; something lost and waiting for 
you; Go." 

This summons to go and find was heard by many men in 
many fields. Astronomy, geology, travel, labor, politics, medi- 
cine, invention, electricity, all had their explorers who were 
willing to cross hostile mountains and burning deserts until 
they came to the "white man's country" of better things. 
Alfred Russell Wallace, the eminent scientist, speaks of the 
19th century as the "wonderful century,'' and wonderful indeed 
it was, as we think over the achievements of those years. He 
tells us that among the great discoveries and inventions there 
were thirteen in the 19th century as over and against seven of 
all the preceding centuries; that the discoveries of theoretic 
principles numbered twelve in the 19th century as over against 
eight of all preceding time. 

Of course it is not my task today to speak of any one of 
these, but rather to endeavor to show to you some progress 
which has been made, not in the world, but here in America, 
religiously, in the past one hundred years. Let me say at once 
that progress has been made. As truly as J. Fenimore Cooper 
put his stamp upon this town, upon her parks, her streets, her 
homes, her citizens, so truly did Christ put His stamp upon that 
century so lately dawned. 

We have been thinking, this summer, suggested by the 
Jamestown Exposition, of that first settlement of Englishmen 
in America. Dr. Bacon in his "American Christianity" tells 
us that in that first settlement there were signs of religious 



22 SUNDAY, AUGUST 4, 1907. 

worship. There were those who used an old sail for covering, 
and sat on logs for seats, with a rail nailed to two trees for a 
Pulpit; there were those who gathered in those far da^'s to give 
worship to Almighty God. As we contrast the scenes of ttiat 
early time with modern religious conditions, we must indeed 
recognize that progress has been made. Of course the 17th and 
the 18th centuries contributed largely to that progress, but the 
19th century made the greatest contribution. 

How shall I endeavor to set before you the religious prog- 
ress in America in the 19th century? I might speak of that 
progress by decades; I might speak of it bv denominations, and 
show how the various denominations have grown in knowledge 
and power. But I choose, rather, to show how progress has 
been gained in certain Christian directions. 

I am spending my summer vacation among the Adiron- 
dacks. I have a topographical map, prepared by the Geolog- 
ical Survey of the United States, which tells me in detail its 
mountains, hills, caves; its valleys, its rivers, its streams, its 
ponds, and its trails. Time would not permit me to give you, 
so to speak, a topographical map of a hundred yeais of time. 
The other day I climbed Bald Mountain and gained a general 
view of the Fulton Chain country and the great sea of forest 
rolling away to the horizon. Up the very modest hill of ray 
limited knowledge of the past century I invite you for a few 
moments, while I point out to you certain signs that I believe 
suggest Christian progress in the 19th century. And, first of 
all, let me call your attention to the fact that progress has been 
gained in the direction of Christian Concord. Professor Allen 
has likened the Christian organization of the country to an 
orchestra of the religious life of our land, whose dissonance adds 
to the universal harmony. Not always was that figure fitting. In 
the 18th century, to quote the same writer, the Calvanists had 
a God that to the Armenian seemed but a devil; while the God 
of the Armenian was to the Calvanists a weak nonentity. Dr. 
Bacon tells us that that decade 1835 to 1845 was a decade of 
schism. There was strife between the Presbyterians of the old 
and new school; strife between the Baptists and Methodists of the 
North and South over the question of slavery; strife in the 
Episcopal Church over the high church and the church evan- 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 23 

g-elical, while^with our Roman Catbolic friends troubles were 
fierce without and within, especially without. There were 
those who, as Americans, regarded the foreign importing of 
them dangerous as a threatening element to this country's lib- 
erty, and there were also those who called themselves Chris- 
tians who thought that the Roman Catholic Church was "the 
Scarlet Woman." 

The past has seen strife among the denominations. To- 
day the various churches stand closer together than ever before. 
Thank God, there is peace in the various denominations among 
themselves, and better still, peace among their neighbors. 
Piotestants have learned to understand that Roman Catholics, 
though they may teach some things in which they can not believe, 
are doing God's work in the world and, on the other hand, 
Roman Catholics are coming to understand that Protestants are 
Christians, to quote the words of Cardinal Ryan, "The Protes- 
tant loves his Saviour." In the Parliament of Religions in 
1893, there were representatives of the various denominations, 
the Roman Catholic included, and though they had a multitude 
of differences, they presented a united front to the heathen 
faiths. And in the Ecumenical Conference which was held in 
New York City, representatives of the various denominations, 
fighting under many denominational banners, sat together as 
one in Christ Jesus. On that memorable occasion Bishop Doane 
of Albany said that all baptized believers belong to the mys- 
tical Body of Christ, and also stated that it was not the busi- 
ness of Christians today to be beggars hunting in the street for 
differences, but rather to emphasize points of agreement. And 
I doubt not but when he made that statement, all hearts in that 
gathering said. Amen. 

One great achievement of the 19th century has been mak- 
ing the words of Charles Cuthbert Hall true: "Polemic sectar- 
ianism is a waning interest, an expiring fire." 

Recently in Ridgefield, Connecticut, Dr. Lyman Abbott, 
before the University Club gathered there, made a speech re- 
ferring to the contribution which Lyman Beecher and Henry 
"Ward Beecher have made to theology, and in the course of that 
discourse he showed that the preaching of Henry Ward Beecher 
had produced a clearer view of the immanent Christ. 



24 SUNDAY, AUGUST 4, J907. 

I believe it is the vision of^ the present day Christ, which 
wc have been getting- more and more during the 19th century, 
that accounts for what I have chosen to term Christian Concord. 
God hasten the day when we all shall see Him more clearly, 
and that prayer ot our Lord shall be answered and we shall be 
one even as He and the Father are One. 

"All things grow sweet in Him, 

In Him all things are reconciled, 

All fierce extremes that beat along time's shore, 

Like chidden waves girow mild, 

And creep to kiss His feet." 
Will you allow me to point out another direction in which 
I see signs of Christian progress during the 19th century? I 
refer to Christian Culture. When Peter urged his readers to 
add to virtue, knowledge, he uttered Christian teachings. 
Jesus Christ is the truth, and all Christians are truth seekers. 
Education was a big word in the past century. In a review of 
the 19th centuiy printed in the Outlook, shortly after the com- 
mencing of this century the statement was made that education 
in general had made tremendous strides as to the aim of educa- 
tion, the content of education and the basis of education. 
That same thing might well he said of Christian Culture. The 
aim has been enlarged, the aim today of Christian Culture is 
culture for service. The content has also been enlarged, many 
branches of knowledge used that we may be better equipped to 
further the .cause of Jesus Christ; and the basis of religious 
education is a broader basis than ever before — culture for all. 

In 1810 there were some dozen colleges in our land. Think 
of the denominational colleges in our land today, and the 
great universities, which may be well regarded as children of 
those same denominational colleges. In 1805 there was one 
theological chair in the country — that at Har-'-ard. In the fol- 
lowing twenty years there were born seventeen new theological 
seminaries. Mr. Bacon, in his "American Christianity," tells 
us that in 1880 there were 142 theological seminaries with five 
hundred twenty-nine professors. The 19th century recognized 
not only the importance ot a cultured pulpit, but also of a cul- 
tured pew. It was in 1825 that the Bible School was organized 
in America. Who can see the thousands upon thou^ands of 
young people gathered from Sabbath to Sabbath in our land 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 25 

today and doubt its progress. The great Chautauqua move- 
ment — and by the way only recently Bishop Potter uttered a 
message to the Church of God at Chautauqua — the Chautauqua 
movement born in the heart and brain of Bishop Vincent, has 
also been evidence of Christian Culture in the 19th century. 
Now East, and West, and North, and South, are gathered 
thousands of people seeking to learn more about God, His word 
and His work. 

I ought to refer also to the religious press as a sign of 
Christian Culture in the 19th century and also to that great 
movement which has been known as the Critical Study of the 
Bible. There has been, especially during the last few decades 
of the 19th century, a turning toward the Bible, and toward the 
land of Christ, and toward the Christ Himself, seeking greater 
knowledge. As the result, there has come a larger vision of 
the face of Jesus and a larger knowledge and respect for the 
Book of God. 

In 1903 out there in Chicago there was organized the 
Christian Educational Association. As that association does 
more and more for the culture of our people in these coming- 
years, the helpfulness of that association may be traced to 
those educational conditions which were engendered by the 19th 
century. 

Speaking of Christian Culture, I must certainly if I am true 
to my theme, speak a word of commendation of the Young 
Men's Christian Association. The labors of that institution 
have been devoted to the culture of man — physically, mentally 
and spiritually. To sum up, in the 19th century there has been 
gained religious progress, the product of which has been an 
increasingly intelligent Christian ministry, and increasingly 
intelligent Church membership, and increasingly worthy wor- 
ship, an increasingly saner creed and an increasingly exalted 

Christ. 

Will you kindly bear with me while I point out one other 
direction in which I believe religious progress may be observed, 
namely in the direction of Christian Conquest. 

"Th< Son of God goes forth to War, 

A Kingly crown to gain, 

His blood-red banner streams afar: 

Who follows in His train?" 



26 SUNDAY, AUGUST 4, 1907. 

Many there were in the 19th century who saw that blood- 
stained banner and followed it as loyally as did the Crusaders 
their Cross in the days of Bernard of Clairvaux. They followed 
an 1 they won victories, too, for the Son of God. 

A great victory that might be named was the freeing of 
the slave. Only the other day I stood in Faneuil Hall, Boston, 
and I could hear agaii the silvery voice of Wendell Phillips 
denouncing the doctrine of slavery. I could hear him lift his 
melodious voice in championship of freedom. The 19tli cen- 
tury recalls that memorable victory, and makes one think of 
Whittier, and Lowell, and the great Emancipator, Lincoln, and 
to think of Lincoln calling for men to help the cause, and to 
think of men responding "We're coming, Father Abraham, 
three hundred thousand strong," and doing that work which 
made it possible for 

"Mighty West to bless the East, and sea to answer sea. 

And mountain unto mountain call. Bless God for we are free." 

As the result of the breaking of the shackles of slavery, 
increasing emphasis was given to man's physical condition. 
Sociology in the 19th century has become more and more a study 
to those who are interested in their fellow men. More aad 
more men are coming to seek to better the conditions of men 
here as well as for the world to come. Many institutions have 
been fighting on the side of Him who came to feed the hungry 
and clothe the naked, and nurse the sick, and set the prisoner 
free. It is true that some of these institutions do not bear the 
Christian name, and yet, if the words of Jesus Christ be true 
that "Those which are not against Me are for Me," we may 
regard them as on the side of the Christian and as proofs of 
Christian progress. You remember that little song of Tenny- 
son's: 

"Once in a golden hour 
I cast to earth a seed. 
Up there came a flower. 
The people said, a weed. 

"To and fro they went 
Thro' ray garden bower. 
And rauttering discontent. 
Cursed me and my flower. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 27 

"Then it grew so tall 
It wore a crown of ligbt, 
But thieves from o'er the wall 
Stole the seed by night. 
"Sow'd it far and wide 
In every town and tower, 
Till all the people cried 
'Splendid is the flower.' 
"Read my little fable: 
He that runs may read. 
Most can raise the flowers now, 
For all have got the seed. 
"And some are pretty enough, 
And some are poor indeed, 
Aiid now again the people 
Call it but a weed." 

I claim that many of the philanthropic institutions of the 
age which are not non-Christian have gotten the seed from the 
Christian, and we may claim them as signs of Christian ad- 
vancement. 

As you turn the pages of the photograph album of the 19th 
century you will see many of the faces of God's heroes there. 
I would like to tell you a little of John B. Gough, hero for tem. 
perance; or that splendid heroine, Frances E. Willard. I would 
like to have the time to speak of that splendid hero of battles 
for the uplift of the negro, General Armstrong. I would like 
to speak of triumphs in mission fields at home and abroad, by 
men like David Brainard and Adam Judson. I would like to be 
able to speak of pulpit triumphs won by Horace Bushnell, and 
Beecher, and Phillips Brooks. In literature there also have 
been heroes of the Christian faith, and among them stands the 
name of him whom we honor to-day — James Fenimore Cooper. 
He was, to quote Julian Hawthorne, "A man who believed in 
God and won an honorable popularity." He wrote books that 
we can safely put into the hands of our children without fear of 
their characters being stained. 

Speaking of the triumphs of the 19th century, those great 
triumphs were won, not only by individuals, but by organiza- 
tions. The Home Mission Societies wrote a story of "The win- 



28 SUNDAY, AUGUST 4, 1907. 

iiing- of the West," quite as thrilling as that other tale by 
Theodore Roosevelt. You remember that last year was cele- 
brated the "hay stack" meetincr, the txatheridg of that little 
handful of students at Williams College, under the leadership 
of Samuel J. Williams. You remember how, as the result of 
those young men's pravers pleading for the coming of the King- 
dom of Christ in other lands, in 1812 the firtt five missionaries 
sailed for foreign shores. And do you remember the great suc- 
ceeding missionary movements when the money, and prayers, 
and life, especially, of the young students' volunteer movement, 
all went to make a record that has been said to bring more honor 
to our land and to our Lord than any achievements in diplomacy 
or war. 

At that Ecumenical Conference to which I have referred, 
and which really summed up the achievements in missionary 
fields in the 191 h century. President Harrison sat as Presiding 
Officer and gave in his speech praise for the Missionary and his 
deeds. And our honored President, then Governor, spoke his 
word of appreciation of what has been done in missionary fields, 
and made a strenuous appeal for the continuation of the mission- 
ary spirit. 

Speaking of Christian Conquest in the 19th century, I must 
not forget to mention the Young People's Society of Christian 
Endeavor, which, in a little over twenty-five years, has brought 
honor to the name of its founder, Frances E. Clark, and better 
still, honor to that Name which is above every name. 

As we look out upon the last two or three decades of the 
century we are reviewing, we see thousands of young people in 
our land following Christ with glad hearts and willing feet and 
shining faces. Yes, for them the words of Sam Walter Foss 
are true: 

"They play a grander music than the anthem of the mills, 
And they waft an ampler commerce than our bales of 

golden fleece, 
And like morning is the coming of their feet upon the hills, 
With their brotherhood of blessing and their sisterhood of 

peace." 

I believe that as we scan, briefly enough and superficially 
enough, the 19th century, to seek signs of religious progress, 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 29 

that we cannot do so without certain impressions coming back 
upon our lives. I think that what we see ought to produce a 
spirit of consecration. Men of the 20th century, there were 
Elijahs in the 19th century: Let there be Elishas in the 20th 
century! There was many a Moses in the 19th century: Let 
there be many a Joshua in the 20th century! 

"Look around! How much there has been won! 
The watches of the night are done. 
Look up! How much there is to win! 
The watches of the day begin." 

Men of the 20th century, show yourself worthy by deeds of 
love, and sacrifice, and service, of the men of the 19th century. 
And I want to say that a review of the 19th century ought to 
produce the spirit of courage. Surely we can feel something of 
the optimism of Robert Browning and sing "God's in His 
Heaven, all's right with the world." 

I recognize, and you recognize, that we have before us as 
working men and working women in God's world, tremendous 
tasks. There are great social problems. The immigrant must 
be cared for; the "cry of children" must be soothed; the strife 
in labor's world must be stilled; that grim giant, Greed, must 
be overcome. Yes, the tasks are tremendous. But listen ! The 
God of the 19th ceniury is our God. Let us go forward to our 
task trusting in Him and He will help us win ! 

The chorus then sang the anthem by Sydenham, "Great is 
the Lord, and Marvelous." 

Rev. Mr. Conger then introduced Bishop Potter, saying in 
doing so: 

There are two kinds of prophets, the true and the false. 
And of true prophets there are also at least two kinds. There 
are those who, sitting apart, not much in contact with men of 
affairs, rapt in contemplation of the eternal foundations, hear 
the Great Voice, and come forth to utter its message to the 
world. Such was Elijah, and such John the Baptist. 

The other sort of prophet is in the midst of men and affairs, 
seeing, doing, feeling, thinking, close to the people about him: 
"Ejes, ears take in their dole. Brain treasures up the whole," 
and out of the abundance of observation and experience and 



30 SUNDAY, AUGUST 4, 1907. 

judgment comes at last a whisper which means vision and 
prophesy. Such prophets, if I read the Book aright, were Dan- 
iel and Isaiah. 

Now, a prophet of the first sort is hard to find, and even 
when one comes claiming to have a message of that kind, it is 
hard for us ordinary folk to distinguish him who has really 
heard the still, small voice which made Elijah cover his face, 
from one who has heard the echo of some hope or desire of his 
own. 

But the second kind of prophet we may look for and some 
times find, and have confidence in. And so to-day we have called 
for one who for more than half the century that is past has been 
living among men and afiairs, feeing, judging, weighing, look- 
ing at men, thinking about them in their relations to God, and 
in their relations under God to one another, and w^hose iudg- 
ment we have come to trust, and we have bidden him prophesy. 
I suppose there is no American audience to which Bishop Potter 
would need an introduction. He will speak to us on "The Re- 
ligion of the Future." 



'THE RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK OF THE FUTURE/ 



By Bishop Henry C. Potter of New York. 



Men, Brethren, and Fathers: 

Any observance such as that which we begin today would 
have been singularly unmeaning if it had left out this Religious 
feature. We are to commemorate here, in Cooperstown, the 
past one hundred years; for those cover the corporate existence 
of this community; and we shall be reminded in many ways and 
by various voices of the evems and the personalities that have 
been memorable in the past. The historian will tell us of 
those political,, agricultural and industrial forces, which have 
entered into the making of our commercial life. The man of 
science will indicate to us those natural conditions, geograph- 
ical, and climatic, which have determined the form and sub- 
stance of those forces of mother earth, with which we have 
builded; ard the man of letters will touch, with his magic 
wand, that world of primitive romatce, to which a great genius 
has given immortal life and form. 

But underneath all these, there lie? the story c f that inmost 
life which is deepest and most potential; — the life that is not 
material, nor intellectual, but spiritual. And so, this afternoon, 
my Rev. Brother, with painstaking precision, and with large 
vision, has led you to look backward over that story of these 
past hundred years, which is not political, nor scientific, nor 
literary, so much as it is religious. Let me thank him in your 
names, as I am sure you will wish me to do, for the scrupulous 
fidelity and impartial temper with which he has performed his 
task; and let us thank him, most of all, for having set before us 
with so much force and directness, the influence of those su- 
preme truths which can alone make a people great! 

For it belongs to us today pre-eminently to remember that 
whatever may have been the political or social, or economic 
discontents which made our fathers seek these shores, there 
were none which went so deep and wrought so mightily as 
those spiritual dissatisfactions which moved men to come hither, 
out of religious bondage and spiritual apathy, to ficd in this 



32 SUNDAY, AUGUST 4, J907. 

free land, a place to worship God in simplicitj and in truth; — 
■with scant ceremonial— or indeed as in the case of our Quaker 
ancestry, with no ceremonial at all, — but "in spirit and in 
truth." It is impossible to recall the earlier religious history 
of the Republic without an emotion of profound admiration for 
those heroic men who, coming- to this untrodden wilderness, — 
untrodden, that is to say, save by savage feet,— did not build 
great houses for themselves, until, first, they had built a house 
for God. The story of the first settlers, here, has in this aspect 
of it, a note of high faith They were God's people, this was 
God's land; and in simple and childlike dependence upon Him, 
their day and their hopes, must begin, and continue, and end. 

Well, we have completed a hundred years, enriched by 
memories which I have here this afternoon rehearsed, of that 
simpler age of faith. What shall we say of its continuance, 
and what is the outlook for Religion in this land this after- 
noon? If any words of mine concerning "The Religious Outlook 
of the Future," can be at all worthy of this occasion, they must 
deal frankly with that question. And so, in the few moments 
during which I am to tax your patience, let me speak first of 
the "Portents of Alarm" that, as I view it, seem to menace our 
future; and then of its "Portents of Promise." 

There are, as I look out toward our Religious Future, three 
notes of menace. The first of these is to be found in the 
"growth of wealth, and the love of pleasure." The life of our 
forefathers was, compared with our modern habits, indulgences 
and demands, an austere life. There was little to get and little 
to spend; and the conditions of lite in the homes that first cov- 
ered these hilis, and in the lives that were lived in them, were 
fuil of what we should call hardship and privation. I am not 
saying that hardship and privation necessarily make men and 
women devout and God-fearing; but it must be owned that, 
■where life had little to give to pleasure or self indulgence, men 
learned to look beyond, with equal confidence and eagerness, for 
a realization of the longings and hungers that they at least 
believed to be somehow shadows and prophecies of better things 
to come. I am not saying, either, that our modern conditions 
of life, which, as we all know are, even in the humblest home, 
incomparably more easy and convenient than those of our 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 33 

fathers, are, necessarily, enervating, not only, but Godless. 
But it must be plain to even the least reflecting person among" 
ws that, if we go on making the world more convenient, and 
comfortable not only, but more luxurious, we are not likely — do 
I say to be unwilling to stay here? No; but I do say that we 
are not likely to possess that "purged vision" of which John 
Milton speaks, and which makes us competent to see the higher 
things. My quarrel with modern life, so far as it makes us 
selfish and self-indulgent, is not merely that it develops, out of 
all just proportions, lower and meaner hungers, but that it 
makes us insensible to higher onesl The note of our modern 
religious life that I think ought most to perturb us, is what I 
would call its "smugness;"-its keen sense of religious decorums 
and conventions; and its extremely feeble sense of religious 
hunger or perplexities. Said a friend to me, not long ago, 
"Nobody reads the book of Job anv more, — I suppose because 
we have so happily outgrown poor Job's perplexities about God, 
and sin, and sufferingl" And I felt tempted to cry out "Poor 
Job," Do you call him? Go home and ask God to fill you with 
the same perplexities, and then perhaps you will find out how 
really contemptible what somebody has called your "hair-mat- 
tress religion" is! 

Ah yes, my brother, we have managed to make life a great 
deal more comfortable than our fathers could make it. Let us 
beware, lest, with the growth of wealth, and the love of ease, 
there di^'s within us the hunger for light! 

2. Again: Another portent of alarm in our time, as one 
looks out toward the future, is in the growth of what some 
men, — and some churches — to-day call godless knowledge. The 
whole realm of that which may be known by man, has in the 
last hundred years, been transformed: and many cherished 
beliefs which, with most of us, have been intertwined with our 
earliest conceptions of material, intellectual, and spiritual truth, 
have been ruthlessly shattered, or utterly swept away. There 
was a time, for example, when men took the Bible, as the su- 
preme authority, not only for spiritual but for scientific truth, 
and when, with that colored brother in Virginia, we were wont 
to say that "the sun do move,'' because he had read in our Bible 
"from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same," 



34 SUNDAY, AUGUST 4, J907. 

and the rest. There was a time, when, with entire equanimity, 
we dismissed all pag-an peoples to what we called the "uncoven- 
anted mercies of God;" which meant that they would all, 
"without be damned everlastingly." There was a time when 
the words of Jesus to the penitent thief on the cross "This 
night shalt thou be with me in Paradise, " were wholly inex- 
plicable words; and because many men of Christian parentag-e 
and ancestry have parted company with these earlier misappre- 
hensions of the sacred Book they have parted company with that 
Book itself, and with that, that it supremely stands for, forever! 
In a word, iu the realm of what may be called dogmatic 
truth it is idle to deny that thete have been tremendous 
changes; and the endeavors of honest men to square their con- 
victions with inherited formularies have produced mental con- 
tortions which would often be comic, if it were not for their 
moral aspects. That passion for ascribing infallibility, first to 
a human person, or council, or decree, and then, to a formula, 
has provoked in many earnest minds that vehement reiteration 
of inherited symbols of our beliefs which has brought about, in 
them, its inevitable reaction of doubt or of downright denial. If 
we could go through the Churches, this afternoon, of whatever 
name or fellowship, we should find, among the most earnest and 
devout of those who worshipped in them, a profound and wide- 
spread apprehension that Religion was a decaying Force in our 
modern life; and that its hold upon multitudes of men and 
women was steadily declining and diminishing. 

And in much that salutes us in the speech, and in the liter- 
ature of our generation there is dramatic confirmation for this. 
We are not a reverent people, and we are often willing to find 
food for mirth in themes and words that must have, for many 
of us, the most sacred associations. 

But would this be possible unless, first of all, our earlier 
and devouter associations with these things had been somehow 
loosened and — most signifi:ant of all — our substantial faith in 
what they stood for, largely destroyed. When we quote, for ex- 
ample, Jonathan Edward's picture of the redeemed looking 
down, with complacent satisfaction, from the battlements of 
heaven, upon the torments of the damned in hell, does it^ever 
occar to us that the contemptuous disavowal with which^we^repu- 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 35 

■diate, to-day, ~any such beliefs, is but a distorted projection of our 
repudiation of all beliefs? "Kven the devils," says Jesus, "be- 
lieve and tremble." But the modern man is careful, often, to 
assure you that he neither believes nor trembles. He does not 
believe, at any rate, — not as his fathers believed, and he wishes 
you to realize that there are things which the modern intellect 
has outgrown — like its faith in ghosts, and fairy tales, and divers 
familiar superstitions, and that one of these things is religion. 
Do you tell him that it still has a place in the world? — he will » 
not dispute with you as to that. But he wishes you to under- 
stand that that place is not its old place; and no book, no 
teacher, no system, nor "credo," can any more speak to him 
with a voice of commanding authority. We will take our 
beliefs, says the modern, much as we take our salad or our 
ginger ale. It must be an appetizing and stimulating com- 
pound, or a pungent and refreshing draught. It may persuade 
us to certain reverent and devout customs, but it shall not com- 
pel us. It may display before us a standard of conduct and an 
ensample of blameless living. But it must not venture, any 
longer to say "This do, and thou shak live"; or, "That renounce, 
or thou shalt die." What one does, or refrains from doing, 
must necessarily be determined by a great many considerations, 
sanitary, social, or personal; and there can be no hard-and-fast 
rule, any more in Religion than in hygenics, which can, before- 
hand determine for me what I must do! That something like 
this is the attitude of a great many minds today, it is quite idle 
to deny. And that it involves, inevitably, moral if not mental 
inertia, in the case of vast multitudes of people, it is no less 
impossible to deny. "Our fathers," says the modern student of 
superannuated religious beliefs, "were often the slaves of a 
blind superstition or of an almost savage intolerance!" Well, 
my brother, sometimes, at any rate, we must needs own that 
they were. But, in an age of such easy-going tolerance as our 
own, can we match their often splendid heroisms or their often- 
er heroic self-sacrifice? We may well be thankful for the com- 
ing of an era when departures from accepted religous traditions 
are no longer punished with dungeon or the stake. But, in ex- 
ulting in our freedom, let us take care that we are not boasting 
vainly of a godless indifference! 



36 SUNDAY, AUGUST 4, J907. 

3. For alas; with all our vaunted emancipaton from earlier 
intolerance, there is one note in our modern life which ought to 
make a Christian people profoundly ashamed. And that is our 
bondage to the spirit of "caste." We compare ourselves, com- 
placently, here in America, with races and lands in which, as 
in China or India, such civilization as they possess is imperious- 
ly dominated by the spirit of "caste." In some cities in India, 
not a great while ago, the Pariah caste was driven from the 
town, at three o'clock in the afternoon, and the gates of the 
city closed, lest the shadow of a Pariah might fall upon a Brah- 
man. "Monstrous and grotesque custom," we cry, "with its 
inhuman dishonor of some of God's children!" Yes, my broth- 
er, — but will you tell me how it differs, in essence, from that 
mental attitude or that wonted manner with which most of us 
bear ourselves toward a negro or a Chinaman! Are most of us 
able to find ourslves beside one of these, or any of their like, of 
whatever alien race or land, without betraying our repugnance, 
and, too often, our downright antagonism? In fact, ihe only 
difference between our conception, for our estimate of "caste", 
and that of out forefathers consists in its narrowness and its 
ignorance. Does anvone ask me if I expect to see a state of 
human society from which all reserves, and distinctions, and 
isolations shall disappear, I answer "Most surely, no!" Or, does 
any one ask me if I have forgotten or am icnorant of, those 
earlier separations and classifications of individuals in which 
long ago the "caste" system took its rise? Again Ianswer,"No." 
But as little need we forget that "caste," as it has existed all 
over the world for centuries and as it still exists in many lands 
today, has been the product of ideas and institutions which 
honored birth and distinguished lineage, and which knew no 
lordship among men, without binding on the noble a duty and a 
service for the vassal, as real and exacting as the duty and ser- 
vice ot the vassal for his lord. 

Well, we say, we have done with all that to-day. Ours is a 
land in which there are no more any lords nor any vassals. 
"All men," says the Declaration of Independence, "are boru 
free and equal,'' and "I am as good as my neighbor — if not a lit- 
tle better !" So be it, my brother, but if that be true, are you care- 
ful, always, to remember that the converse of your proposition. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL 37 

trust also be true, and that "your neighbor is as good as you?" 
Are there none upon -whom you allow yourself to bear hardly? 
Is there no man, or woman, to whom you behave insolently? 
And, if at all you cringe or yield, is it to virtue, or weakness, 
or defencelessness that you yield? Our shame in this land con- 
sists in this — that, while we profess to have no "castes", nor 
class-distinctions to tyrannij:e over us, we are too often in bon- 
dage to a cowardice which worships coarse power — or baser 
still, I think, cringes to mere wealth. I was entering a railway 
car, not long ago in the doorway of which stood a huge and 
over fed creature who refused to yield the way. In front of me 
advanced a youth who hustled him aside with what I confess as 
scant, but well-deserved want of ceremony. But alas, as I was 
rejoicing in this merited rebuke of bad manners, I heard, behind 
me, a voice rebuking him who had administered it, and ex- 
claiming in dismay, "Good heavensl You must not hustle a man 
like that. Why, he is worth two hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars!" It is along this line, men and brethren, that our 
foremost danger lies! Mere wealth, by itself considered, has 
no more moral quality than mere water. But, great accumula- 
tions of wealth like dammed-up floods of water, may become a 
menace; and when wealth, no matter how it may have been ac- 
quired, or accumulated, shall become the dominant note in our 
modern civilization, so that men shall cringe to that, as of old 
the slave cringed to his master, then we shall have enthroned a 
rule of "caste" worse, because more degrading, than any that 
has gone before it! 

II. You will own now, that, in what I have said thus far I 
have not ignored those dangers which most gravely menace the 
Republic in the century that is before us, nor their intimate re- 
lations to our Religious life and progress. But the whole hori- 
zon is not a bank of dark and menacing clouds; and looking^ 
forward there is much to inspire a Christian disciple with re- 
newed courage and hope. 

1. And, first of all, in the wide emancipation of religious 
communions and devout and earnest minds from the demon of 
theological intolerance. It was inevitable, I suppose, that 
when, with the Reformation, there came emancipation from the 
domination of an infallible man, that old tyranny should be 



38 SUNDAY, AUGUST 4, 1907. 

supplanted by the no less imperious domination of an infallible 
Book. And the misfortune with our fathers was that, while 
they insisted upon tbe authority of an infallible Book, each 
fellowship, communion, society, or brotherhood, by whatever 
name it called itself, insisted upon its own interpretation of the 
Book which it accepted as equally infallible wi':h the book it- 
self. 

In other words, the Reformation Communions too often passed 
under the rule of formularies, confessions, standards of belief 
and practice, which, each one, claimed for itself an unerring- in- 
terpretation of the inspired words on which it claimed to rest. 
Nothing, in this connection, has been more inspiring than the 
gradual weakening of the hold of these formularies over the 
minds which they had once terrorized and intimidated. Is it 
said that I am here apostrophizing as praise-worthy that decay 
of faith which has been the dark stain upon the religion of our 
time? I am doing- nothing of the sortl There is indeed a de- 
cay of faith which is the sad distinction, in some of its aspects, 
of much ot the religion of our time and one may well bewail it. 
But no exaggeration of a great mental and spiritual reaction, 
even though it may run out into the extravagances of actual dis- 
belief, need be confounded with that happy recoil from the impe- 
rious exactions of "credenda", both monstrous and cruel, from 
•which, thank God, our age has happily shaken itself free! Men 
read, e. g-. such a book as M^zley's "Ruling Ideas of Early 
Ages", and as such a volume gives back the Bible into their 
hands with the priceless discovery that it is the story of a pro- 
gressive revelation, the Christian student discovers at last that 
no single formulary can hope completely to summarize and fi- 
nally to declare what is the whole doctrine of Christ; and so 
consents to go to school anew, to the Master who has redeemed 
him! 

And then, along with this enlarged conception of the Religion 
of the New Testament, there has broken upon multitudes of 
minds, thank God, a conception of Religion as something inev- 
itably larger and nobler than any merely Sectarian boundaries 
can contain. There was a time, my brother, when men hon- 
estly held that if one were outside the fellowship in which we 
worshipped — they could only be dismissed to the "uncovenanted 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL, 39 

mercies of God". I trust that we know better than that to-day 
and that our judgments of men whose theological opinions and 
whose traditions of worship most widely differ from our own, 
are at once more gentle and more charitable. I met on the step 
of an inn, here, in Cooperstown, last summer, a Hebrew gentle- 
man who said to me,"I am glad to see you and I do not suppose 
you can guess why. But this is the reason; I do not believe 
you will say to me as did a Christian minister whom I met this 
morning: 'How are you. Sir? Do you know? — I am very sorry 
that you are going to hell !' " I could not help asking ray He- 
brew brother how the preacher who greeted him knew so cer- 
tainly his destination and I begged him to believe that no such 
cry of dispair as that was any just portrait of the Christian 
Religion. 

2. For that Religion has a right, to-day, as it looks out upon 
the coming century, to rejoice in a far wider and more compre- 
hensive conception of human brotherhood than has ever pos- 
sessed it before. We, who are living this afternoon, are wit- 
nesses of a spectacle which on this globe of ours has never been 
matched before. For centuries, nations and continents have 
been marked off from one another by customs and scepters, and, 
most of all, by religions, which (some of them) taught men not 
to love but hate, and distrust, and separation from their fellow- 
men. To our times it is given to see these ancient walls fall 
down, and to find even China, which, a little while ago, called 
you and me "white devils," and "outside barbarians," willin^c 
to learn American civilization from American teachers. All 
round the world, this afternoon, there is breaking tnrough the 
darkness which has, hitherto, enveloped what we have been 
wont to call heathen lands, a new conception of the essential 
oneness of the Race — which, whether men as yet realize it or 
not, is the fruit of the incarnation of Jesus Christ! You will 
hear men who are impatient of what they call the sentimental- 
ism of Foreign Missions ask us if we are insensible to the fact_ 
that the people to whom we are sending teachers and evangel-^ 
fsts, and Bibles, have, each one of them, a religion of its own, — 
fn most cases much older and more widely believed than our 
own; and that Buddhism and Brahmanism, and Confucianism 
were faiths in Oriental lands before Christ was born? Nc, my 



40 SUNDAY, AUGUST 4, J907. 

brother, I am not ignorant of that fact, — nor of another which 
it will be pertinent, here, to recall. And that is that these an- 
cient faiths, after having done their utmost for the lands in 
which they have prevailed have, one after the other, confessed 
the failure of those pagan civilizations, of which they have 
claimed to be the supreme inspirations. In a volume which I de- 
sire to commend to every one within the sound of my voice this 
afternoon, entitled "Contrasts in Social Progress'' by E. P. 
Tennv, you may find the history of what the religion of the 
New Testament has done for nations that have long groped in 
darkness. The story of the young Neesima, the founder of the 
Japanese "Doshisha'' has much that is common to pagan expe- 
rience all round the world. By chance he read two papers writ- 
ten by an American Missionary, the one a brief history of the 
United States, and the other the story of the Bible, and then ran 
away to America praying, as he journeyed, all the way "O, God, 
if Thou hast eyes, see me; if Thou hast ears, bear me. I want 
to be civilized by the Bible!" 

3. And this brings to me the end. As I look out from the 
close of the century that we commemorate to-day, there are 
three supreme notes of promise, the growth of tolerance, the 
growth of brotherhood; and finally I think the growth of a di- 
vine discontent. Has it as yet occurred to you to recognize the 
significance of what is coming to pass with that race whose civ- 
ilization is the oldest, and whose people are the most numerous 
of all the nations of the world, to-day? For hundreds of cen- 
turies, during which they have attained a culture and reared a 
State, in many aspects of both of them, of matchless excel- 
lence, the Chinese have spoken of the rest of the world, and 
especially of the Christians nations, as "outside barbarians." 
I do not say that, as yet the great majority of that ancient 
people think of us in any other way. It will be a vast and 
slow-moving progress thai the Religion of Jesus Christ will 
have to make, befcre faith and worship, in China, will become 
yours and mine. But one thing has come to pass in China, in 
India, in Asia Minor and Major, which is a prophecy of the 
end. The old religions still survive. But, all round the world 
the attitude of man is one of tense and barkening expectancy I 
And, if among ourselves there moves the doubter who has 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 4J 

lost his earlier faith, thank God, his face, and voice, and speech, 
betray that stifled and unsatisfied hunger of the soul which 
only Jesus Christ can satisfy ! Men tell us that these hours are 
hours of great [re^stlessness and impatience and a surrender of 
old forms of faith. My brother, I more than partly believe it. 
The religious history of mankind is inevitably the renunciation 
of misconceptions, or half or false conceptions, of the Truth for 
that clearer vision and that simpler faith which are the gift of 
the Holy Spirit! Step by step, and often, losing its feeble foot- 
ing, and sliding backwards in its path, the soul climbs up to 
God. But out of failure comes a surer progress, and out of 
struggle the final and glorious triumph! 

At the close of the Bishop's address the audience rose and 
sang "Coronation," remaining standing while the benediction 
was pronounced by Rev. Edward A. Perry, pastor of the CJni- 
versalist Church: 

"Upon us, O'LotdGod, our Heavenly Father, Upon us, rev- 
erent in attitude, devout in spirit, grateful in heart; upon our 
loved ones wherever in the wide world they be; upon the 
stranger and old friend within our gates; upon those not per- 
mitted to be present, whose hearts are turning fondly home; upon 
those detained whether by service, sickness, sorrow, suffering, 
or even selfishness; upon our community and its business in- 
terests that integrity may be the keynote of all; upon our citi- 
zens that they be patriotic, faithful, sacrificing, in the piping 
times of peace as well as the bitter hours of battle; upon our 
educational institutions that righteousness may be learned as well 
as knowledge; upon our churches and all religious institutions 
that all members may know that the Gospel is neither formal- 
ism, nor dogmatism, but Christ at the center of being, "the 
Way, the Truth, and the Life" to the end that there shall be 
that unity of spirit which is not only the bond of peace but the 
promise and potency of the conquest of the world for Christ; 
upon all these rest, O, Lord God, our Holy, Heavenly Father! 
Thy Gracious Blessing, that we, Thy Children, may live nobly, 
love worthily, die trustfuly. Amen." 



Historical Exercises 



Monday, August 3th, 1907, 

at the 
Court House Lawn. 



Monday the celebration was ushered in by the bring of a sa- 
lute at 7 o'clock accompanied by the ringing of the church bells 
and the blowing of steam whistles. 

^T-" From 10 a. m. until 12 m. the Tenth Regiment Band gave 
a concert from the band stand at the corner of Main and Pio- 
neer streets. 

At 2 o'clock was scheduled a ball game with the ^Olmypias 
of Utica, but owing to delay in their arrival it was after 3 
o'clock before the game was started. There was a large crowd 
present to witness the game and they had their patience in 
waiting rewarded by a closely contested game. 
'^•"^ At four o'clock the Historical Exercises were opened on the 
Court House Grounds, where a stand had been erected. On this 
were displayed portraits of J. Fenimore Cooper, Judge Nelson, 
Judge Bowen, and Judge Edick. 

After an overture by the band, Rev. Ralph Birdsall called 
the meeting to order, and introduced G. Pomeroy Keese, the 
chairman of the Historical Committee. Mr. Birdsall said: 

"It is fitting that at the fore-part of this Centennial week 
should stand an historical commemoration. It is more fitting 
that as President of this historical commemoration we should 
name one who for nearly half a century has been, and is, the 
representative citizen of Cooperstown, more intimately than any 
other associated with the history and traditions of the place; 
most of all in touch with the past, and first of all in the activi- 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL, 43 

ties of the present, the Taraenund of our tribe, Mr. George 
Pomeroj Keese." 

In introducing the first speaker Mr. Francis W. Halsey, 
Mr. Keese said: 

"It is with great pleasure that we have with us this after- 
noon, for the opening Address of our Historical Programme one, 
who, if not Cooperstown born, has been identified from earliest 
years with the events of all this region and who has done more 
to preserve them from loss than any writer known to fame. 

In his work 'The Old New York Frontier' he has rescued 
from oblivion much otherwise unknown, and has arrayed pro- 
saic facts in most charming drapery. He will give us the bene- 
fit of his researches in a paper entitled 'The Upper Susque- 
hanna in th6 Border Wars.' 

I have the honor to present Mr. Francis Whiting Halsey." 



**THE UPPER SUSQUEHANNA IN THE BORDER 

WARS/^ 



By Mr. Francis "W. Hakcy. 



It is a rare privilege and one attended by much honor — the 
privilege of speaking to this audience, in this place, on this 
joyous occasion. Stranger though I am to almost all of you, being 
neither a native of this village, nor a citizen of it, the village in 
■which I was born and reared is also a village watered by the Sus- 
quehanna. Not very far distant from this spot it lies, still high 
up among the hills of New York, forty miles only from this Ot- 
sego Lake in which the Susquehanna takes its source, and over 
which the genius of Cooper has thrown the unrivalled spell of 
his romances. '", 

How wonderful a thing a river is. Most other objects in 
nature under the influence of man are modified or altogether 
changed. Towns and cities spread across the fields and creep 
up hillsides. Railways make new lines in the landscape. For- 
ests are cut away from the mountains, and in their places arc 
seen fields of grain and happy homes. But the river flows on 
from age to age, the same yesterday, today and forever. The 
Susquehanna flows today as when the forest crept down to its 
borders, when the only sounds above it were made by the cries 
of birds, and when over its shining surface the Indian's bark 
canoe pursued its silent way. The Susquehanna here in Coop- 
erstown is like the river I knew in Undailla in childhood. It is 
only changed in Unadilla by being broader, many creeks and 
one small river, the Charlotte, having swollen its waters. Oth- 
erwise it is the same winding, shallow, island-studded stream, 
that gladdens every eve which once has known it, and then 
comes back to look upon its face again. 

There are weighty reasons why on this occasion the his- 
toric memories of the headwaters of this river may properly be 
called to mind in Cooperstown. White men had explored this 
▼alley contemporaneously with the first settlements in the 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 45 

State — those on Manhattan Island and in Albany, while here in 
Cooperstown, and elsewhere in Otsego County, some of the ear- 
liest settlements in the State, outside of the Hudson and Mo- 
hawk Valleys, were made. In that war between England and 
France for mastery of the American Continent, which ended in 
surrender of Quebec, men from these settlements had some 
share, while in the Revolution they bore a notable part in the 
defense of the New York frontier against the merciless assaults 
of Indians and Tories. 

All through that frontier warfare the Susquehanna from 
Tioga Point, (the place where the Chemung flows into the Sus- 
quehanna,) was employed as the main highway along which 
the Indians a-ad Tories marched for the desolation of the fron- 
tier. Having obliterated every vestige of civilization along 
these waters by the massacre of Cherry Valley, the burning of 
Springfield, and the expulsion of settlers from Unadilla, Otego, 
Oneonta. Milford, and Cooperstown, the valley thenceforth, ex- 
cept for the expedition of General Clinton in 1779, remained in 
possession of the Indians and Tories down to the close of the 
war, — a period of about five years. The valley, meanwhile, 
had been reduced to a land of complete desolation — log houses 
being turned into heaps of ashes and blackened logs, cultivated 
fields being converted back to the wild state, and Cherry Valley 
becomng "an abandoned slaughter-field". 

These border wars give to New York State a revolutionary 
distinction possessed by no other state. Massachusetts had her 
Concord, her Lexington, her Bunker Hill; New Jersey her 
Princeton and Trenton; Pennslyvania her Brandywine and Ger- 
raantown; the Southern states their many battlefields; but New 
York, in addition to her battles of Long Island, Harlem Heights 
and Saratoga, contendel with the stealthiest and most danger- 
ous of all the foes of that time — the red man of the forest, who 
attacked old men, women, and children and barbarously slaugh- 
tered them. Foremost as she is today among the States, New 
York a century and a quarter ago, bore almost alone this burden 
of border foray and massacre. 

It is altogether fitting that we should seek to understand why 
this was the case. Causes there certainy were, and they may 
be easily understood. Not to mere accident were due these bor- 



46 MONDAY, AUGUST 5, J907. 

der wars. Other frontiers had their Indians, and yet, except 
for the Massacre of Wyoming (which in part was due to ancient 
local feuds, independent ot the Revolution) they escaped their 
attacks. Even the frontier of New York escaped them until the 
Revolution was well on its way. The war had been more than 
three years in pi ogress when massacre overwhelmed the set- 
tlement at Cherry Valley. The center of conflict had passed 
away from New England; it had passed away from New York; 
New Jersey had been saved and Pennsylvania saved; Burgoyne 
had surredered at Saratoga, and George III., in a hopeless effort 
to save something from the impending ruin of his cause, had 
transferred the conflict to the South, where the remainder of it 
was to be fought out — in Virginia, Georgia and South Carolina. 

Why, then, these border wars on the New York frontier? In 
one short sentence the essential fact may be disclosed: the minis- 
ters of George III, now at last had won over the Indians to their 
caure. For three years they tried in vain to win them over. Again 
and again had councils been held on both sides — the Indians 
with the English, the Indians with the Americans — but the re- 
sult had been an essentially neutral stand by the Indians. In this 
war the wisest course for the Indians would unquestionably 
have been the maintenace of the state of permanent neutrality. 
They had nothing to gain by the war, but everything to lose 
and in its results did, indeed, lose everything. But strict neu- 
trality to these Iroquois Indians was impossible. Of all things 
they loved war the most. It was their trade, their accomplish- 
ment, their delight— in their eyes the fountain of all things 
honorable and glorious in man. 

Their long alliance with the English against the French of 
Canada had made their course, once the issue with the colonies 
was nearly forced npon their sympathies, only too obvious. 
This war of the child of America with its mother England they 
could not comprehend. Taxation without representation was 
quite beyond their understanding. They saw nothing patriotic 
in white men who disguised themselves as Indians and cast 
tea into Boston Harbor. Patriots who defied British sol- 
diers in the streets of New York and Boston reminded them of 
the French of Canada, who in the older wars had stormed Eng- 
lish furts on the northern frontier; they engaged in war with 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 47 

the King of England, and tbe king was the red man's powerful 
friend, who lived across "the great lake" — their name for the 
Atlantic Ocean. 

It must be said that when finally the great bodj' of the In- 
dians cast their lot definitelj with George III. they pursued no 
honorable course because they kept an ancient covenant chain. 
As the war closed and their wide domain, among whose streams 
and forests for ages their race had found a home, passed forever 
from their control, they might have said with a pride quite as 
just as the pride of Francis I. after the battle of Pavia: "All is 
lost, save honor''. 

No doubt longer exists as to where responsibility lies for 
the employment of the Indians in this war. It was the English 
ministry that employed them. Joseph Brant, going to England 
in 1776, on other business — to secure redress for the wrongs of 
the Mohawk Indians, who had been defrauded of lands on the 
Susquehanna — was personally urged to aid the king's cause. 
The Mohawks were to have justice done them with their 
lands after the war; meanwhile, they were to fight for the 
king. Brant's negotiations were held with Lord George Ger- 
maine, the member of Lord North's cabinet who was direct- 
ly charged with the conduct of the war in America. On Ger- 
maine's shoulders, more than on the shoulders of any other En- 
glishman, more on him than on any American Tory, rests the 
indelible stain of the employment of the Indians in this war. 
Only in late years were the full details of those negotiations pub- 
lished, but they were fully understood in England a century and a 
quarter ago. Lord Chatham, in the House of Lords, gave mem- 
orable voice to them, in that famous speech in which he rose 
to the full height of his unrivaled eloquence, when he cried: 

"Who is the man, my lords, who, in addition to the disgrace 
and mischief of this war, has dared to authorize and associate 
to our arms the tomahawk and the scalping knife of the savage; 
to call into civilized alliance the wild and inhuman inhabitant 
of the woods; to delegate to the merciless Indian the defense of 
disputed rights and to wage the horrors of his barbarous warfare 
against our brethren? My lords, these enormities cry aloud for 
redress and punishment." 

On his return from England Brant joined the English forces, 



48 MONDAY, AUGUST 5, J907. 

but for a time all that he and the Tories could do failed to pro- 
duce armed Indian conflict. Not until the summer of 1777 was 
anything accomplished to organize the Indians in actual war- 
fare against the settlers. In that year a council was held in 
Oswego, where the Indians were assured that the king would 
never see them want for food and clothing; they were lavishly 
supplied with presents; were promised a bounty on every scalp 
they could take, and were told that rum would be as plentiful 
for them as water in Lake Ontario — an awful temptation to an 
Indian. When Burgoyne was preparing his descent from the 
north, they were invited to Fort Schuyler, now Rome, Oneida 
county, where they would have an opportunity to sit bv and 
smoke their pipes while they saw the British "whip the rebels." 

In an evil hour the Indians yielded, and the result was that, 
under Brant's leadership, they joined the Tories and pressed on 
to the field of Oriskany, where they met Gen. Herkimer and his 
frontier militia. One of the fiercest and most savage of all bat- 
tles was Oriskany. In a dark ravine old neighbors, now be- 
come deadly enemies, fought with Indians on slippery, marshy 
ground, knives and bayonets in hand, 1,500 men in a wild strug- 
gle, and great was the slaughter. The Indians retired from 
this battle completely overthrown. Returning to their villages 
with doleful shrieks and yells at their losses, their one ambition 
now was to attack the frontier settlements. Forward for the 
next five years they went every summer to devastate the settle- 
ments in the Susquehanna, Mohawk and Schoharie valleys. 

As I read the history of those times we have in this battle 
of Oriskany— one of the decisive conflicts of the Revolution, 
leading as it did to the surrender of Burgoyne — the primary 
cause of the massacre of Cherry Valley, and all the lengthened 
trail of blood which converted a smiling and prosperous frontier 
into a land of barren desolation. Nowhere in all the American 
colonies was greater misery wrought than in that territory of 
which Cooperstown lies somewhere near the center. Tryon 
county, then a large section of New York State, counted twelve 
thousand farms which ceased to be cultivated; two-thirds of its 
population died or fled, and among those who lemained were 
three hundred widows and two thousand orphans. It is a record 
of battles in the open, battles in ambush, robbery and arson. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 49 

Massacre and child-murder, extending from Unadilla on the 
south to the north and east along and beyond the Mohawk val- 
lej. 

When the war was over the history of the Indians virtually 
closed. Their losses had, in truth, been far greater than those 
of the frontiers-men. The Indians practically lost everything. 
Their homes were destroyed, their altars obliterated. Among 
the streams and forests where for hundreds of vears had dwelt 
their fathers, were never again to burn their council fires. 
England virtually abandoned them to the mercy of the men 
whom they had fought as rebels, but who were now victorious 
patriots, the complete masters of an imperial domain. Nothing 
lor them was enacted in the treaty of peace; not even their 
names were mentioned. It was a pitiful state, for men who 
had given their lives and fortunes, everything in the world that 
they had, for a cause, not their own, the cause of an ally across 
the great waters, with whom they were keeping an ancient cov- 
enant chain. All, indeed, had been lost save honor. 

Here I will ask you to listen to a few words in support of 
the name of that extraordinary Indian, Joseph Brant. A man 
is known by his friends, and by this test we may understand 
something of Brant. Some years after the war he went to Lon- 
don for the second time. He was cordially received every- 
where, and especially by English officers whom he had known 
in America. One of these was Gen. Stewart, son of the Earl of 
Bute, and another. Lord Percy, who afterwards became Duke 
of Northumberland. 

Brant made himself quite at home in London drawing- 
rooms, clad sometimes in the dress of an English gentlemen, 
sometimes in a half military, half savage costume. Ladies re- 
marked upon his mild disposition and the manly intelligence of 
his face. He paid a formal visit to George III., when he de- 
clined to kiss that sovereign's hand, on the good American 
ground that he, too, was a sovereign; but he had the grace to 
kiss the hand of Queen Charlotte, — a more agreeable occupation 
for a red man, as well as for a white one. Romney painted 
Brant's portrait; Boswell sought his acquaintance. He dined 
in houses where at the same time were seated Burke, Fox and 
Sheridan. From Fox he received a silvei snuffbox. At a great 



50 MONDAY, AUGUST 5, (907. 

ball given in his honor he appeared in war costume, his features 
} orribly painted. When the Turkish ambassador approached 
him in a too familiar way, he feigned anger, flashing his toma- 
hawk in the air and sounding the war-whoop, until the gentle- 
man from Constantinople is said to have turned very pale. 

In his own country, until the close of his life, Brant main- 
tained friendly relations with more than one man against whom 
he had waged battle. He corresponded with some of them 
down almost to his death. In Philadelphia he had an interview 
with Washington and met Aaron Burr, Volney and Talleyrand, 
afterward the great war minister of Napoleon. Burr intro- 
duced him to bis daughter, Theodosia Burr, who, at her home 
in New York, gave a dinner in his honor, at which were present 
Benjamin Moore, the bishop of New York, and other eminent 
men. In Albany he met officers against whom he had fought, 
and talked with them on friendly teims of the old and stormy 
times. During this visit he was told one day that John Wellt 
— the sole survivor of the family who had been murdered in 
Cherry Valley, and afterward a distinguished lawyer and asso- 
cfate of Alexander Hamilton — had called to see him, determined 
to take his life. Brant calmly remarked: "Let the young man 
come in." But Wells in the meantime had been induced to 
forego his purpose. 

The friendship with the Duke of Northumberland was main- 
tained long after Brant's return from London. Chesterfield has 
remarked that letters disclose not only the character of those 
who write them, but of those to whom they are addressed. 
This Duke of Northumberland, who was then at the head of 
the British peerage, addressed Brant as "My Dear Joseph." 
He desired hiiii to accept a brace of pistols and to keep them for 
his sake; told hira his portrait was preserved with great care in 
his wife's own room; asked for the prolongation of their friend- 
ship, and closed with these words: "Believe me ever to be, 
with the greatest truth, vour affectionate friend and brother, 
Northumberland." No man, white or red, wanting in good 
character, would ever have received words like these from such 
a source. 

Brant died seven years after the new century began. Dur- 
ing his last illness he addressed to his adoptod nephew these 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 5J 

words: "Have pity on the poor Indians. If you can get any 
influence with the great, endeavor to do them all the good you 
can." He lies buried in the Mohawk churchyard at Brantford. 
in Canada, a town named after him. There an imposing monu- 
ment has been raised to the memory of this, the most distin- 
guished of all the red men who, in that eventful eighteenth 
century, linked their names forever with the history of the 
headwaters of the Susquehanna. 

For many years Brant's name was a name of obloquy. No 
terms applied to him were more familiar than the words "cruel 
Brant." But we are to remember that the story of the border 
wars has never yet been written by a Mohawk Indian. We 
have had only one side of that story told to us — the white man's 
side. Even from this we know that Brant was better than the 
Tories under whose guidance he tough t, and far better than 
most Indian chiefs of his time. He had much kindness and 
real humanity in his nature, and the potent charm of an open 
personality. If he loved war, it was because he loved his 
friends and his home still more. If he fought in battle with the 
vigor and skill of a savage, he fought where honor called him, 
and he was glad when the war was over. No white man in all 
this valley looked back with more pain than he to 

"The old, unhappy, far-off things 
And battles long ago." 

Out of history passed the Iroquois when the Revolutionary 
conflict closed. In the more than a hundred years that have 
since elapsed — although they still remain as numerous as they 
ever were — the Iroquois have made no history on this continent. 
Scattered about on various reservations they have remained 
silent witnesses of the progress of civilization on our soil. A 
vast territory has been peopled with more than 80,000,000 of 
men; stores of wealth, unknown to any former times, have been 
wrested from the soil, and from treasure chambers beneath the 
soil; but the Iroquois have silently lived on, stolid, unimpas- 
sioned, unimpressed witnesses of these vast accomplishments 
by a race of pale faces from across the sea. 

That Oneida warrior chieftain who was called Honeyost 
knew not the melancholy fate in store for his own people when 
he said, at the close of the war — said in words whose eloquence 



52 MONDAY, AUGUST 5, J907. 

surpasses the eloquence of many white men — "The Great Spirit 
spoke to the whirlwind — and it was still." 

But it is well to remember here that this once powerful race 
had made history on this continent long before the white men 
came to make another kind of history. Of all American In- 
dians, the Iroquois were the greatest. They have rightly been 
called the Romans among red men. They were statesmen as 
well as warriors, and when they formed their famous League, 
they accomplished a work in statecraft, the laudation of which 
can scarcely go too far. Those unlettered savages formed a 
federation of States. Centuries before Hamilton and Jay, Mad- 
ison and Washington, they gave expression on American soil to 
the federal idea. In 1754, under Benjamin Franklin, the white 
men first attempted to take up that federal idea, when in the 
Albany Congress of that year, he sought to unite the several 
colonies in one, Franklin having warned his countrymen with 
that wonderful gift of prophecy which he seemed always to 
have been endowed with, that they must "unite or die." That 
Albany meeting took place on a spot wonderfully fit for feder- 
ation to gain new inspiration from. Here the Iroquois again 
and again had met in council — on that very hill where now 
rises the imposing edifice reared by a great State as its capitol. 

In the history of the Iroquois, we see what were the force 
and efiSciency of organized genius for war when it was made to 
act in a land that had been built for empire. It is beyond ques- 
tion that a ereat source of their strength lay in the lands they 
lived upon. Between the Atlantic and the Mississippi no lands 
were so high as theirs. Here were the headwaters of great 
riveis — the Hudson, the St. Lawrence, the Susquehanna, the 
Ohio — marking the highways along which the Indians descend- 
ed to the conquest of inferior races, far to the South, far to 
the "West. Long before the white man had made these lands 
his own, before he had built his highways, had reared his towns 
and cities, and had planted here in New York a population of 
7,000,000 of souls — ages before this era of the white man, this 
dusky warrior race that never numbered more than 25,000 in- 
dividuals — about one half the present population of Otsego 
county — had already marked out this territory as a land of em- 
pire. 



.THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL 53 

A word more before we part. Id the presence of this audi- 
ence, and in a neighborhood hallowed by so many evil memories 
of Indian warfare, may I not say a word in behalf of the ser- 
vices which that masterful race rendered to Anglo-Saxon civiliza- 
tion on this continent? The savage men who did such awful 
slaughter among the people of this valley, a generation after- 
ward, in that older war we call the French War, arrayed them- 
selves on the side of the beneficent and enduring forces in hu- 
man affairs, and these were then in sore peril. That older con- 
flict of the eighteenth century, in which the first blow was 
struck on Pennsylvania soil — on that field on her southern bor- 
ders called Great Meadows, where George Washington won 
his spurs as a soldier — a field distant one hundred miles west- 
ward from that other and far greater Pennsylvania battlefield, 
where was fought out one of the decisive conflicts in world-his- 
tory, where 150,000 men engaged in mortal strife to determine 
that "government of the people, by the people, for the people 
should not perish from the earth" — that older conflict was a 
conflict between masterful, opposing forces for supremacy in the 
new world. 

When Wolfe dies at Quebec, destiny and human progress 
had decreed that the future civilization of North America 
should be Anglo-Saxon and not Latin. And it was the fathers 
of the men who did massacre in Cherry Valley and laid desolate 
every settlement on the Susquehanna, who helped forward the 
Anglo-Saxon side in that conflict, if indeed they did not definitely 
turn the scale for that side. Here in Cooperstown, distant onljr 
a few miles from the shadow of that sacred monument in Cherry 
Valley, let us give the Iroquois all the honor that is rightly 
theirs. 

Need I remind this audience what that victory over France 
has meant for your land and mine? Need I say that in place of 
Roman law it has given us all that we owe to Magna Charta, 
to the Bill of Rights, and to trial by jury; that instead of an 
inquisition we have had religious liberty; instead of centraliza- 
tion of power and tyranny in office, the town meetings; instead 
of an ignorant populace such as darkens every hamlet in Spain, 
the little red school house; instead of a Louis XV, a Thomas 
Jefferson; instead of a Duke of Alva, that finest type of an 



54 MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 1907. 

American citizen, that man born in a cabin, scarcely better than 
the cabin of an Iroquois Indian and yet who rose to be the second 
saviour of his country, Abraham Lincoln? 

Thus by the help of the Iroquois, was forever established 
on the American Continent this empire of stable democracy- 
something far better than 

"The glory that was Greece, 
The grandeur that was Rome." 

Music by the band followed Mr. Halsey's address, after 
which Mr. Keese read a paper on "The Early Days of Coopers- 
town." 




1. Mr. Halsey Speaking. 2. Mr. Keese Speaking. Mr. Bunn Speaking. 



^'EARLY DAYS OF COOPERSTOWN/' 



By G. Pomeroy Keese. 



''■' It was the fortune of the writer some years ago to stop for 
a day in a town which was about to celebrate its 1000th anni- 
yersary. It is needless to add that this was a city of the old 
world. To-day, we Americans think ourselves fortunate if we 
can find a locality which has an antiquity of even 300 years, 
and, when found, we devote six months, or more, to the cele- 
Ifcration. So rapid are the changes, however, in this rapidly 
changing country that the Jamestown we honor to-day for its 
advanced age has lived and died and become a ruin with noth- 
ing more to show than an ivy-mantled tower. 

Cooperstown, if only a modest country village, situated 
among the green clad hills of Otsego, and reflected in the caltn 
waters of the Glimmerglass, has both a charm and a history of 
which few rural towns can boasi — the junior of its sister hamlet 
of Cherry Valley by 30 years, it has not even a Revolutionary 
•xistence and but a single event of that period to disturb its 
wooded shores, while Brant waved his tomahawk and Butler 
butchered the ill-fated inhabitants of the little village over the 
kills. 

The only historic record of the war of Independence to be 
found upon the site of Cooperstown consists in the remains of 
the famous dam, constructed by General Jamas Clinton in 1779, 
by which the swollen waters of Otsego lake were made to con- 
tribute power to waft his boats to join forces with General Sul- 
liyan at Tioga Point. The rocks composing the foundations of 
this dam fwere long in sight at the outlet of the lake until 
blown up by Capt. Cooper some 30 years ago as an obstruction 
to navigation. 

A'more enduring rock is still to be seen in the immediate 
yicinity and long may it remain with both its historic and ro- 
mantic traditions as a rendezvous and "place of friendly meet- 
ing" of the Indian warriors, as the name Otsego signifies, and 



56 MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 1907. 

made famous to the readers of the Deerslayer in the openings 
scene in that first of the Leatherstocking tales. 

The Indian and the native beasts of the forest had undii- 
puted sway over all this region until the latter half of the 18tk 
century. While occasional attempts were made to establish 
trading posts with the Indians, and letters patent were obtained 
from them for large tracts of land in this part of the county, 
which subsequently changed hands several times, until thej 
finally became vested in William Cooper and Andrew Craig of 
Burlington, N. J., and not long after solely in William Cooper 
who, at the time of his death in 1809, was said to be the largest 
owner of improved lands in the state, saving only the Wads- 
worth family in the valley of the Genesee. 

Mr. Cooper first visited his property in the autumn of 178S, 
and we may judge of the denseness of the forest, and that the 
region was still almost a wilderness, in the fact that he waa 
compelled to climb a tree in order to get a view of the lake, and 
while in this position, in the silence and solitude, he saw a deer 
come down, and undisturbed, drink of its waters near Otsego 
rock. Two years earlier than this, George Washington in a 
tour, made at the time with a view of inspecting the capabil- 
ities of the inland waters of the state for navigation purposes, 
came over from the Mohawk Valley to the headwaters of the 
Susquehanna and thence returned by the Continental roads to 
Canajobarie. Doubtless the fame of Clinton's successful nari- 
gation of the river induced him to do so. 

The actual date of the commencement of the village i« 
somewhat uncertain as there was no formal settlement. 

Mr. Fenimore Cooper gives it as 1788, when the first map 
was made and a' few streets laid out. There were two or three 
log' houses on the site previous to this time. Two years ear- 
lier, viz.: in 1786, a man bv the name of John Miller, accom- 
panied by his father, came upon the present grounds of Lake- 
lands and, being unable to cross the river, felled a pine tree and 
climbing over, reached the site of Cooperstown. Mr. Cooper, in 
later years, marked the stump of this tree with white paint, 
giving it the name of "bridge tree". The writer has a piece of 
this stump, which has since disappeared, in his possession and 
also well remembers John Miller who was living in the year 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 57 

1838 in the brick house built by^hira at the corner of Lake and 
Pine streets and on the ground cleared from the original 
forest. 

Judge Cooper's account of his first visit to his future pos- 
sessions is interesting, as proving how much of a wilderness the 
present village of Cooperstown was in 1785. He says: "In 
1785, I visited the rough and hilly country of Otsego, where 
there existed not an inhabitant, nor any trace of a road; I waa 
alone, three hundred miles from home, without bread, meat or 
food of any kind; fire and fishing tackle were my only means of 
subsistence. I caught trout in the brook and roasted them in 
the ashes. My horse fed on the grass that grew in the edge of 
the waters. I laid me down to sleep in my watch-coat, nothing 
but the melancholv wilderness about me. In this way I ex- 
plored the country, formed my plans of future settlements, and 
meditated upon the site where a place of trade or a village 
should afterward be established. In May, 1786, I opened the 
sale of 40,000 acres of land which in sixteen days were all taken 
up by the poorest order of men. I soon after established a 
store, and went to live among them, and continued to do so un- 
til 1790, when I brought on my family" 

The question has often been asked and much discussion has 
arisen as to how many of the characters and incidents in the 
Leatherstocking tales, especially those that have to do with 
Cooperstown and Otsego lake, have foundation in fact. The 
Glimmerglass of the Deerslayer is of course Otsego lake, and 
the Templeton of the Pioneers is a close description of the ear- 
ly days and life of Cooperstown with Judge Temple as William 
Cooper. The incidents in both novels are purely fiction. The 
arrival of Judge Cooper and his family, for instance, took place 
in October, 1790, and as thev were numerous and accompanied 
by many of the belongings of a change of residence, became 
somewhat of the nature of a caravan. Judge Temple came over 
Mount Vision in"^a sleigh on a frosty December evening. The 
incidents as narrated in the novel might well have happened for 
the date was but a few years after the appearance of the first 
settlers. The "Leatherstocking" of the tale, familiarly known a* 
"Natty Bumppo", is undoubtedly a fictitious personage, yet 
Mr. Cooper himself admits that the old hunter by the name of 



58 MONDAY, AUGUST 5, J907. 

Sbipman, whom he knew in his infancy, vaguely sugt^ested the 
character. The writer of this paper, who can recall the Coop- 
•rstown of 70 years ago, has in mind two persons who combined 
the occupations of hunter and fisherman and might well hare 
stood as models for Cooper's Leatherstocking. 

That William Cooper, when he laid the foundations of his 
future town, had also visions of a commercial emporium, Is 
more than likely. It must be remembered that in 1790, there 
were no means of transportation west of Albany, aside from the 
farmer's wagon. The Erie canal was not then thought of. 
The idea of railroad had not dawned upon the most progressive 
inventor of the day. James Watts' tea kettle had not even sug- 
gested the steamboat. Consequently the situation of Coopers- 
town at the head waters of the Susquthanna, which was then 
believed to be navigable, certainly by means of what was 
known as slack water navigation, and in the midst of a promis- 
ing agricultural region had as good a right to be a commercial 
center as any other point in the state, and as such it proved un- 
til the opening of the Erie canal in 1825, when the tide tuned — 
the Mohawk valley became the great highway of business and 
travel, and prediction of James White that "he expected to live 
to see Coopeistown become a seaport," was forever laid at rest. 
The knowledge, however, came too late to save the rural and 
picturesque character of the village, as witnessed by many even 
of the earlier residences being built directly on the street as 
though land was thought to be too valuable to allow the luxury 
of a dooryard. ,_.. „ 

There are other evidences to prove the early expectations 
of Judge Cooper that Cooperstown was likely to be an impor- 
tant business and residential center. Coming as Mr. Cooper 
did from Burlington, N. J., and having intimate relations with 
Philadelphia, he naturally attracted many who were seeking 
the advantages of fresh fields and pastures new which the pict- 
nresque region of central New York afforded. A number of 
persons of foreign birth, especially of French descent, aie found 
to have visited or settled in Cooperstown. The name of Mons. 
Le Quoi, a former governor of Martinique, is mentioned in the 
early chronicles. The celebrated diplomat Talleyrand, one of 
the most noted names in the history of France, was for several 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 59 

dajs a member of Judge Cooper's family. The acrostic verses 
written by him in honor of the Judge's daughter, Ann Cooper, 
are well known. Id addition to these a number of West Indian 
families found their way into this region, as numerous tomb- 
stones in the Episcopal churchyard testify. The descendants of 
these families are still to be found in Western New York. 
Coming with these immigrants, mostly at that day as slaves, 
were quite a large number of southern negroes at one time add- 
ing to the pooulation 70 or 80 souls. They were on the whole 
an industrious and respectable class of citizens, numbering 
among them many of intelligence and capability. "Joe Tom" is 
still remembered by many now living as the village fac-totem, 
while Harris Mann, as a cake maker, has had no successor — a 
wedding was hot a wadding unless she made the cake. 

The early dwellings of Cooperstown were no doubt some- 
what rude and primitive. Even the Manor house, as it was 
called, the first residence of the Cooper family was of wood 
with the exterior boarding unplaned. This building stood fac- 
ing Main street and the lake and directly in front of the subse- 
quent Otsego Hail, now marked by the Indian Hunter. Otsego 
Hall was undoubtedly an imposing structure of its day and was 
said to have been the first building of brick west of Schenecta- 
dy: sixty-four by forty-four feet in dimensions, two stories with 
attic and basement, it had the air and capacity of a mansion, 
and a history of hospitality well deserve 1. The carpenter's 
contract for that part of the building is still in existence, and 
calls for the payment of $1,350. When it is considered that in 
those days ornamental woodwork was quite a feature in the 
construction of the better class of houses, and that all the carv- 
ing was done by hand the amount named seems ridiculously 
small. A similar contract for the carpenter work in the stone 
house now standing at the corner of Main and River streets 
which Judge Cooper built as a wedding gift to his oldest daughter 
who had married George Pomeroy, was for $500, and the specifica- 
tions say that "it shall be finished in all respects in like man- 
ner as is the house in which the said William Cooper now re- 
sides." Among the old time dwellings of the town this house 
has always attracted attention, not only from the peculiar her- 
ring-bone manner of laying the stone but also from the ini- 



60 MONDAY, AUGUST 5, J907. 

tials in stone in the eastern gable. G. A. P. C. George 
Pomeroy, Ann Cooper, and the date of completion, 1804. 
This is very conspicuous but the spread eagle in the apex 
requires some effort of the imagination to detect the Nation- 
al bird. The house known as Edgewater, built by the 
Judge's oldest son Isaac Cooper, eight years later has the 
acknowledged finest situation in the village and is perhapi 
the best specimen of Colonial architecture in the place. 

Our metropolitan friends of to-day are willing to give the 
palm to Cooperstown and Otsego lake for beauty of situation 
and surroundings, with a side qualification, "but vou are so far 
from New York!" Six and a half hours seem an embargo to 
many. Let us take the journey fifty years after the foundation 
of Cooperstown. The day boat Champlain leaves the foot of 
Barclay street at 7 o'clock for Albany. It is evening when she 
arrives. The right is passed at the American hotel or Con- 
gress Hall. At six o'clock the following morning a four-horse 
coach is at the door for the 66 mile drive westward. Unless in 
the longest days breakfast has been taken by candle light. 
The road is sandy and heavy for 15 miles out of Albany, and 
usually dusty or muddy, as the case may be. A midday stop at 
Mother Huntington's, near Esperance, for dinner and change 
of horses. Thence onward through Carlisle and Sharon to 
Cherry Valley. Here another stop for supper, and if reason- 
ably early and the road good, the postman's horn, as we come 
down Mount Vision, announces our arrival as the shades of 
night were falling fast, or about 9 p. m. If on the other hand 
the roads were heavy and the days short, Story's tavern at 
Cherry Valley opened its doors for the night. An early start 
on the third morning and, if all goes well, our destination is 
reached before noon. 

Ten years later and sixteen miles of railroad from Albany 
to Schenectady is in operation. An hour is consumed and then 
we take a canal packet boat for Fort Plain. We do not gain 
any time by this route over the 66 miles of coach travel, but 
simply substitute an easier mode of transit with one-third of 
the distance by coach. That 22 miles once took the writer, in 
the month of April, ten hours to accomplish, walking much of 
the way in front of the "Prairie Schooner", which was the only 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 6i 

rehicle capable of making the passage right side up. The road 
at that day was on the east side of the lake with the prudent 
provision of a public house about every three miles, as a house 
of refuge for stranded travelers. It may be added that the 
taverns of that day, although humble in style, gave the way- 
farer quite as good bed and board as many more pretentious of 
the present day. 

Coming down 12 or 15 years later and we have the plank 
road on the western shore of the lake. In its palmy days this 
was an improvement, but its reign was short and the route was 
soon after changed to Colliers on the opening of the Albany & 
Susquehanna R. R. 

So great a change has taken place in Cooperstown since 
early days, both as to its business and position which it occu- 
pies in the state, that a brief comparison between then and 
now may be interesting. 

As has already been stated, William Cooper conceived the 
idea that he had founded a town which would become a great 
commercial center. It continued to maintain a prominence long 
after Judge Cooper's death, at one time rivaling Utica in popu- 
lation. As the country filled up, every available stream con- 
tributed its power for manufacturing purposes — the larger ones 
carrying cotton and woolen mills and the smaller saw and grist 
mills. The steeper hills were wooded to the summit and im- 
mense quantities of valuable lumber were cut from the forests. 
Such a thing as lumber imported for building purposes was un- 
known. The best of pine shingles were shaved by hand in the 
woods and with the result of a durability far exceeding the ma- 
chine made of the present day. The cattle roamed upon a 
thousand hills, and wool and mutton became so profitable that 
Otsego county at one time ranked third in the state in the num- 
ber of sheep. Fifty years ago the population of the county was 
greater than it is to-day, notwithstanding the railroad town of 
Oneonta with its 8,000 inhabitants. 

A large part of this prosperity was due to the energy and 
wise foresight of Judge William Cooper and the hardy pioneers 
whom he induced to follow him. If he did set himself up as 
the lord of the manor and kept open house on a somewhat lib- 



€1 MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 1907. 

eral scale bis host of tenantry no doubt justified it. Some oth- 
ers who will address or write for this occasion will perhaps give 
a more extended notice of the verj- interesting scenes and series 
of letters written by William Cooper and entitled "A guide to 
the wilderness" and which were published in Dublin, Ireland, 
with a view to induce emigration to this country and section. 
In this pamphlet which is exhaustive of the subject, the Judge 
enters into every particular which would interest the settler, 
viz: as to "soil and climate", "timber", "wild beasts and 
birds", "taxes", and "markets". 

In those days very little money was in circulation and ex- 
change of commodities was the rule rather than the exception. 
The tenant paid his rent from the produce of the land. So 
many pounds of butter, so many bushels of wheat, or corn, or 
oats, or pounds of maple sugar or of pork. In later days it 
finally settled down to pork as a standard of value and the rent 
was made payable in this product. Hence came the source of 
income known as "pork leases", and these were bought and 
sold much the same as farms. It is within the memory of the 
writer that on certain days of November or December farmers 
would come to town with deceased hogs in the wagon with 
which to pay their rent. 

For some reason, not al 'ogether clear, in earl}' days the 
northern part of the state attracted considerable attention ai 
offering attractions in land speculation not only to natives but 
to many foreigners who were induced to make investments. 
Judge Cooper carried on considerable correspondence to this 
effect, Necker and Madame de Stael were among the number. 
At one time Judge Cooper organized a party which made an ex- 
ploring expedition to St. Lawrence county, and lands were 
bought in a township named in honor of Baron de Kalb of Rev- 
olutionary fame, some of which are held by his descendants to 
this day. The prices paid for these and Adirondack lands over 
100 years ago were mote than some of them would bring to-day. 

It was on one of these expeditions that the Judge and his 
party were subjected to an experience in a public house which 
induced him to enter the following couplet upon the register at 
the time of departure. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 63 

"Here soverign dirt erects her sable throne, 
The house, the host, the hostess all her own". 
That there was some connection between Otsego county 
and St. Lawrence in those days is farther proven by the fact 
that the work of Father Nash, one of the greatest American 
missionaries and first rector of Christ Church, Cooperstowc, can 
be traced in the record of Trinity Church, Potsdam. There, 
as here, he was ever the self-denying follower of his Master and 
was pictured as making his pilgrimages on horse-back, his wife 
riding on a pillion behind and the iron kettle in which was 
cooked their humble fare swung by the side. 

We have frequently spoken of William Cooper as "the 
Judge". He was such being the first elected judge of the coun- 
ty in 1791. Later he twice represented his district in Congress 
being elected in 1795 and 1797. Politics and party feeling 
ruled high in those early days and Judge Cooper, being in 
prominent positions, did not escape the animosity of his oppo- 
ents. He met his death from the effects of a blow on the head 
as he was coming down the steps of the capitol at Albany. 

In this connection my attention has recently been called to 
£ most interesting collection of letters which were gathered and 
published in a small volume by E. Phinney, in 1796, which go 
to show the bitterness of party feeling that existed at that 
time. The book is entitled "The Political Wars of Otsego or 
the Downfall of Jacobinism and Despotism, in a collection of 
pieces lately published in the Otsego Herald. To which is ad- 
tied an address to the citizens of the United States, and extracts 
from Jack Tar's Journals, kept on board the ship Liberty, con- 
taining a summary account of her Origin, Builders, Material. 
Use — and her dangerous voyage from the lowlands of Cape 
Monarchy to the Port of Free Representatve Government, by 
the author of the Plough Jogger." 

Time does not admit of quotations from this most spicy col- 
lection of addresses to one another by political opponents, but 
the quaint allusion to the retirement of Washington from the 
presidency might serve as a model for future Fourth of July or- 
ations. 

One sailor says to another, "Hark Tom, do you hear our 
Boatswain pipe all hands on the deck; what does this mean? 



M MONDAY, AUGUST 5, J907. 

My sorrow, Tom, our glorious chief Pilot, that ornament to the 
world, is going- to resign. See him on the binnacle speaking 
to the people; hear his words, they are enongh to melt the most 
obdurate heait, how he reflects all the honor which our ship 
Liberty obtained on the people, he attributes nothing to him- 
self; but I think the people ought to reflect all the honor back 
on him, for he (under a kind Providence) hath been the means 
of bringing our ship Liberty to all this honor and flourishing 
condition she now is in. Hear his sweet words, how like Moses, 
he declares the true path to prosperity and the contrary to de- 
struction. O America! if tbou wilt hear the good advice of thy 
bright example, patron and guide and perform the duties he 
hath displayed in his sweet exhortation, thou shalt be blessed 
indeed, if not, destruction shall ensue." 

The political wars were waged with unabated fury in Ot- 
sego county at the close of the 18th century and there seems to 
have been great hostility between the villages of Cherry Valley 
and Cooperstown. The former having a number of years the 
advantage in age, and perhaps pluming itself upon its Revolu- 
tionary record with a first-class Indian massacre to its credit, 
assumed to look down somewhat upon its more youthful rival. 
At the time of the organization of Otsego county in 1791, when 
Tryon county was dissolved and several new counties were 
erected, Cherry Valley made a bold bid for the county seat. It 
would undoubtedly have been successful had it not been for its 
situation on the extreme northeast border. It must have been 
about this time that it attempted to steal the name of our lake, 
for we are told that for a while in the remote parts of the coun- 
ty the Otsego was known as "Cherry Valley Lake". We might 
forgive Cherry Valley some sins and acknowledge that she had 
at this time a number of distingushed citizens, who were fight- 
ing Cooperstown for the mastery, but they can not have our 
lake. 

The lake has a history all its own from the day when the 
first white man gazed upon its mirrored surface to the present 
it has had few rivals for any nine miles of inland water here or 
abroad. 

The fame of the Otsego bass is world wide. Thousands of 
epicures have tested its luscious flavor. Naturalists, from Prof. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL 65 

Agazziz at the head have discussed and dissected it, while Gov. 
Dewitt Clinton made a special study of its peculiarities, and in a 
letter to George Pomeroy under date of May 21st, 1822, he re- 
fers to previous correspondence on the subject, and withdraws 
the opinion previously expressed, that the fish is the whitefish of 
the western lakes, and says that it is a non-descript peculiar to 
the waters of Otsego. While we claim this to be the fact there 
is no doubt that all fish which have their home in its pure and 
crystal waters show a firmness of flesh and delicacy of flavor 
peculiar to this lake — notably in salmon trout, the bass and the 
pickerel. 

Ojr lake also has tne reputation for picnics, in early days 
called "Lake parties," which no waters can rival — from the 
first recorded one in August, 1799, when Judge Cooper enter- 
tained a party from Philadelphia at Point Judith, to the days 
of Gov. Marcy and Gov. Seward, when the whole village turned 
out to welcome them to the Three-Mile Point, and subsequently 
to the notable occasion when Secretary of State Seward brought 
the whole diplomatic corps from Washington, during the Civil 
War, to show its members the reserved strength of the northern 
states and came to Cooperstown as one of the points of interest. 
The dinner at Five-Mile Point and night spent among the resi- 
dences of Cooperstown is not forgotten. 

As sixty yeais approached after the first lake party it was 
the intention of the survivors to celebrate the event on the same 
point, but when the day arrived Mrs. Ann Pomeroy, Judge 
Cooper's daughter, was the only one living. When the one 
hundredth anniversary was reached, however, viz: in 1899, the 
descendants of the first party, to the third and fourth genera- 
tion, assembled at Point Judith to do the occasion honor. The 
after dinner speeches at that time were so far retrospective that 
I venture to conclude this paper with the ode then delivered, 
slightly altered to meet the events which we this day honor. 

Oh, for the touch of a painter's brush, 
Or the pen of a Kipling bold. 

To tell a tale of the lake and woods 
In the century long grown old. 

Our fathers came from the distant east, 
And they followed the Indian trail, 



66 MONDAY, AUGUST 5, J907. 

To the waters blue of the Glimmerglass, 
To their home in the leafy dale. 

They planted a village beneath the hills, 

They cleared the woods, they sowed the grain; 

With hunter's rifle they killed the deer, 

For bass in the lake they drew the seine. 

Those were the days of struggle and toil, 
And the pleasures of life were few; 

"Let's seek in a picnic a rest from care; 
Let's paddle our own canoe." 

So few, but merrily, then they go 

To a point on the eastern shore — 

In ashes hot they roasted the corn. 
And cheer from the old. jug pour. 

A jolly set were our grandsires then, 

"When they sought their hours of ease, 

And smoked their pipes while spinning their yarns 
Beneath the old oak trees. 

But canoe and scow have gone to dust, 
And the fire on the beach is dead, 

And we today of their kith and kin 
Have come hither in their stead; 

And an hundred years have come and gone 
Since our country then was new, 

And now we keep in memory dear 
Our love for the good and true. 

To one who came to his forest home 
And gave our village its name; 

To the son, the touch of whose magic pen 
Has lifted to world-wide fame. 

Beneath the pines in the churchyard old 

Their bodies at rest are laid, 
And pilgrims' feet o'er the turf above 
Honor lives that never can fade. 
Mr. G. Pomeroy Keese introducing the Hon. Walter H. 
Bunn, said: 

Few towns of the size of Cooperstown in this country have 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL 67 

had more names of note connected with their history than has 
Cooperstown. I know of no one who can present these names to 
you in a clearer, more eloquent and more satisfying manner 
than our former fellow townsman whom I now have the pleas- 
ure to greet again and to present to you, the Hon. Walter H. 
Bunn. 



'NOTED MEN OF OTSEGO DURING THE EARLY 

YEARS/^ 



By Hon. "VTaltcr H. Bann. 



Mr. Chairman : 

Ladies and Gentlemen.— I gratefully appreciate the unmer- 
ited distinction and honor which your partiality has conferred 
upon me. You have bad the pleasure of listening to a Son of 
Otsego, who has won for himself high professional distinction 
and literary fame, by adding to the volume of trustworthy his* 
torical knowledge, the results of years of patient, unremitting 
and laborous study, and research, to the acquirement of which 
he devoted the fruits of a ripe scholarship inspired by an enthu- 
siastic devotion to and love for his work. 

It was my good fortune to be honored by the friendship of 
his father a cultured and scholarly man, an eminent and be- 
loved physician, and a highly respected citizen of Unadilla, 
and it is a great pleasure to me to recognize in the son the 
characteristics, ability and virtues of the father. 

Your committee was equally fortunate in securing as the 
historian of Cooperstown's completed century of settlement and 
growth, one of her own -.ons, whose tamily history runs back to 
the settlement of the village, whose boyhood, youth and man- 
hood, even unto advanced age, have been spent here, who has 
kept fresh and clear in his loyal heart and mind the countless 
associations, recollections and memories of his early life and 
has treasured and preserved the traditions which have come 
down to him as a part of the family history, all imbued, 
strengthened and colored by his passionate devotion to and 
affection for this beautiful village, in whose behalf and in 
whose service, his voice, his pen, and his influence have been 
ceaselessly employed for over half a century. 

I am asked to speak to you of the noted men of Otsego 
during its earlier years, 1791-1841. Manifestly I am not ex- 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL 68 

pected to refer to Judge Cooper, nor his distinguished son, nor 
to good old Father Nash, as the previous speaker has told of 
their lives and services. Otsego h\s not been prolific of great 
men as the world judges greatness. No son of Otsego nor res- 
ident of the Ccuntj has ever been elected by the people to a 
State administrative office except Levi S. Chatfield, then ot 
Laurens, who was elected Attorney General in 1849, and as I 
recollect resigned before his term expired. (Resigned Nov. 
23d, 1853.) 

Otsego has had representatives in subordinate places in the 
State departments; Tribunes of the people in National and 
State legislative hills; and Great Jurists upon the bench, State 
and National; and if but few of these men have won excep- 
tional fame or honor, let this be said, that in all Otsego's 
history there has jiever been an official defalcation, a betrayal 
of public trust, or use of the money or the property of the 
people fcr ])rivate profit, but to each and every of her represent- 
atives in official Hie "Public office has been a public trust," and 
the credit, the dignity, and the honor of the public service 
has been at all times conserved and inviolate. 

I am convinced that we cannot justly measure the acts ard 
services of the pioneers of the County, without considering 
their educatioal, social and political situation, and their facili- 
ties for moral, business or political advancement. We must 
consider the diversity of the people, their varying habits, 
tastes, activities, characteristics mental and physical, their 
struggles intense and earnest with nature and with each 
other, their changing conditions, the means by which 
the same were sought or wrought; even their reverses 
or their successes become necessarily part of the history of the 
times, to be taken into account in determining and measuring 
the value of their services to their fellowmen. 

Neither the time allotted me nor your patience will allow 
me to depict even briefly the manifold social, industrial, and 
educational disadvantages under which the pioneer of 1791 
lived. They were many and grievous, but he was earnest, en- 
thusiastic, brimming over with life, energy and confidence. 

The pioneer settlers of this County appear to have come 
mainly from New England, more largely from Connecticut than 



70 MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 1907. 

from any other State, and from Columbia and Westchester 
Counties. Montgomery, Oneida, Herkimer and even as far 
west as Ontario were being' rapidly peopled with these hardy 
and thrifty pioneers, who left the comparatively sterile soil of 
New England for the cheaper and far more fertile lands avail- 
able in the Mohawk Valley and in this County, Lands were 
offered cheaper here and upon better terms than they could be 
obtained upon the Mohawk, and here there was room for all in 
Nature's primeval wilderness. A capable and industrious 
farmer could obt;nn hundreds of acres at a nominal cost if he 
could by settlement draw a colon> after him. Here was the 
new El Dorado, the soil was fertile, springs a bundant, timber 
of first quality, and the Charlotte, Schenevus, and Susquehanna 
wo'.ild float rafts to the lower Susquehanna and the seaboard. 

The humble cabin built and home established, granted health 
and industrious habits, the way was clear. It was indeed for 
the early years a lonely and rough life, with little of social com- 
fort and relaxiaton beyond what the secluded family might find 
in the society of each other; but the pioneer fathers had strong 
arras, hard hands, iron frames, tbey were devoted to their fam- 
ilies, their homes, their work; there was little of elegance or 
polish in life, work or manners. They were contented yet am- 
bitious, they looked for the rising of the sun on the morrow, 
they sought comforts rather than luxury. Their wives were 
equally brave hearted, industrious and hopeful, and were de- 
voted to their dt mestic duties, working with hand, heart and 
brain for the comfort of husband and bairns — the source of the 
sterling virtues of both was their devotion to their homes. 
This made them earnest in business, and family affection and 
pride was a powerful incentive to individual virtue, and to hon- 
orable success. Every man had a reputation to make or keep. 
There were no drones nor idlers. The pioneer had unbounded 
confidence in the future of the Republic he had assisted in estab- 
lishing'. He was proud of his own people, of the marvelous im- 
migration already setting in to our shores, of our expansive 
area, the immensity of which he did not realize, even imagine. 
National pride and patriotic fervor made him boastful. He 
was aggressive and "our country, right or wrong", was his motto. 
He was courageous and hopeful, he had but little learning of 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL 7t 

the schools, but he had good sound sense, was direct and prac- 
tical, and could express himself clearly, fluently and forcibly 
upon all matters within the range of personal experience, and 
could prove his doctrine Orthodox by "Apostolic blows and 
knocks, " if occasion demanded. He was not quarrelsome, but 
was tenacious of his rights and not afraid to assert or defend 
them; he had no reverence for eld titles, estates or homes; he 
was ready for any trade which would better the condition of his 
family; he was hospitable, a good neighbor, a helpful, sympa- 
thetic, open hearted and generous friend in the hour of sickness 
and trouble. He looked ahead, planned for the morrow, for 
next Year. Each succeeding season more acres were cleared 
and planted; the crop of Indian corn was supplemented with 
rye, wheat, oats and tobacco. Orchards were started, aid 
kitchen gardens establishe ': the stock of cattle and herds in- 
creased. He no longer feels anxiety for the future of his rap- 
idly increasing family. The success of the colony brings others 
hither, neighbors draw more closely, grist and saw-mills are 
set up, farm houses built, with plastered walls, and windows of 
glass; taverns multiply, blacksmiths and artisans 6nd here a 
field for remunerative labor; stores are established and the com- 
forts of the home increased. Religious socities are organized 
and stated preaching secured; school houses are rau'tiplied al- 
though no system of public instruction was adopted by the 
State until as late as 1795, and then only for a term of five 
years, at the expiration of which the appropriation or mainte- 
nance therefor was not renewed for several years, so that the 
expense of education fell mainly upon the communities in which 
schools were maintained. 

It seems to me that the pioneers whose hardships and pri- 
vations, whose toils and hazardous achievements, whose unfail- 
ing faith and unabated ardor wrought for themselves and for 
their families individual success, and assisted in the upbuilding 
of the several townships, and of the county with which their 
fortunes were identified, are each entitled to be classified as men 
of note. 

Time will not permit me to enumerate the men who by vir- 
tue of ability, honesty and force of character became leaders in 
the varied activities and life of the several towns. I am per- 



72 MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 1907. 

mitted to briefly refer to a few who won especial distinction, 
either because of unusual abilities or because of valuable ser- 
vices rendered unto their fellowmen. And of ihese I recall none 
entitled to greater distinction than one, whose name and possi- 
bly whose services are unfamiliar to the great bodv of our peo- 
ple. 

Jedediah Peck. 
Born at Lyme, Conn , January 28. 1748, served in the Kevo- 
lutionary Army 1775 — 79, removed to Otsego county (tlien Mont- 
gomery) in 1790, settling at what is now the town of Burlington. 
He had early married a sister of Dr. Sumner Ely, who later be- 
came one of the early settlers of Middlefield, an eminent physician, 
Member of Assembly and Senator of Otsego County. Mr. Peck's 
education was very limited, but he was a man of great natural abil- 
ity, strong intellectual powers, coarse and uncultivated, yet 
shrewd, tactful, quick to grasp a situation, business or political, 
and full of expedients. He had no natural gifts as an orator, nor 
in conversation or debate, yet was a preacher of local notoriety, 
and upon his journeyings about the county distributed tracts and 
papers and addressed religious meetings on Sundays and week 
day evenings wherever and whenever a congregation could be 
assembled to hear him. He was a worthy citizen, of exemplary 
habits, and of undoubted honesty; he was an aggressive sup- 
porter of the political views and administrative policies of 
Thomas Jefferson, and violently antagonized the Federalists of 
the county, then led by Judge Cooper, General Morris and Dr. 
"White. This opposition culminated during the administration 
of President Adams in 1798, in his arrest under the Alien and 
Sedition Act for circulating petitions against that Act; he was 
indicted and taken under guard and in irons to New York City 
for trial, but was never tried, and upon the repeal of the act 
was discharged. His indictment and arrest, his undaunted 
courage thereunder, and continued denunciation of the Federal 
Administration, drew to him the attention, admiration and sup- 
port of a large majority of the citizens of this county, and he 
at once became the recognized leader of the Republican (Jeffer- 
sonian) party of the county, dictating its jjolicy and nomina- 
tion3 for many years thereafter. Indeed the overthrow of the 
Federal party in this State and the consequent success of Jeflfer- 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL 73 

son in the Presidential canvass is attributed to the excitement 
and indignation aroused by the spectacle of the venerable and 
kindly faced old man being transported through the State in 
the custody of Federal officials and manacled, the latter an un- 
necessary and outrageous indignity. He was a member of the 
Assembly from 1798 to 1804, State Senator and Member of the 
Council of Appointment, 1804-8. His legislative service was 
characterized by an intelligent and unselfish devotion to the in- 
terests of the people, and by such a profound, almost prophetic 
appreciation and knowledge of their needs, present and future, 
presented and urged in such an homely, untutored, yet 
earnest and persuasive speech, as to win for him favorable 
recognition and honorable place and give to him command- 
ing influence among his legislative associates. In 1799 he 
introduced a bill for the abolition of imprisonment for debt, 
then and for many years thereafter unsuccessfully urged, but 
later adopted upon demand of an enlightened and humane pub- 
lic sentiment On February 21, 1803, and again in 1804 Mr. 
Peck introduced bills for the re-organization of the State Com- 
mon School System and made strong speeches in their favor, but 
they severally failed of enactment. In 1811 an act was passed 
authorizing the appointment by the Governor of five commis- 
sioners to report a system for the organization and establish 
ment of Common Schools, and Gov. Tompki;is appointed Mr. 
Peck as one of the commissioners and h. was v lected the chair- 
man thereof. The plan prepared mainly by Mr. Peck, reported 
by such commission, was submitted February 14, 1812, was 
promptly enacted into law and became the Common School Sys- 
tem of this State, remaining essentially the same until 1838, the 
main features of which were embodied in the present system. 
Far seeing, broad minded, and prophetic of ken as was Mr. 
Peck, he could scarcely have anticipated that the number of pu- 
pils in the public schools of this State would have increased 
from 60,000 in 1800 to 1,335,554 during the past year, and the 
expense of maintenance from about $100,000 in 1800 to over 
$52,000,000. Mr. Peck was a Judge of the Court of Common 
Pleas (known as the County Judges) from 1791 for many years, 
in which position his native common sense, good judgment and 



74 MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 1907. 

latuitive perception of right and justice, enabled him to make a 
creditable record. 

Revo]utionar3' Patriot. 

Soldier of the War of 1812, enlisting when nearly 70 years 
of age under Col. Stranahan, under fire at the battle of Queens- 
town, and receiving honorable mention in the oEBcial report of 
the battle. 

Preacher. 

Legislator. 

County Judge. 

Party Leader. 

Founder of the State Common School System of this State. 

Surely Jedediah Peck was a man of note. 

Joseph White, M. D. 

The early history of this county and of the men of promi- 
nence of that day would be incomplete without reference to Dr. 
Joseph White of Cherry Valley. 

Born in Chatham, Conn., September, 1763, he served in the 
Revolutionary navy and was in two engagements. His educa- 
tion was meagre, and was more largely acquired through the 
individual effort, iadu?try and perseverance of the young and 
ambitious student than from teachers and school. Early deter- 
mininp; to fit himself for the medical profession he taught school 
to gain funds enabling him to prosecute his studies and fortu- 
nately attracted the attention of a famous surgeon of his day, 
one Dr. Percival, under whom he commenced his studies. He 
labored so assiducusly and worked with such diligence that he 
was admitted to practice before he was 21 years of age. Deter- 
mining to settle in New York, after a brief term of residence at 
other pionts, he settled in Cherry Valley in 1787, and the record 
of his long, useful and eventful life was thenceforth, and until 
his death, in 1832 identified with the social, business, educa- 
tional and religious history of his town and county- He became 
one of the most noted Surgeons of the State, and beyond ques- 
tion the ablest outside of New York City, with a practice ex- 
tending from Albany to BulTulo, and was vested in popular esti- 
mation with miraculous powers both in medicine and surgery. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL 75 

He was the first President of the Otsego Medical Society. 

Was at one time President of the State Medical Society. 

Was Senator from this district from 1796 to 1800. 

Member of the Council of Appoittraent. 

County Judge of Otsego county from 1800 to 1823. 

He left surviving him a son, Delos White, who in a minor 
degree inherited the professional skill of his distinguished 
father. 

William Yates, M. D. 

In this connection, mention must be made of Dr. William 
Yates, who was born at Sapperton near Burton-on-Trent, Eng- 
land, in 1767, studied medicine in London under Sir James 
Earle (Medical Director St. Bartholmew's Hospital.) 

Court Physician to George IIL and President of Royal Col- 
lege Physicians and Surgeons. 

He inherited an ample fortune, and never consented to re- 
ceive any fee for professional services. He took a deep interest 
in the question of insanity and the methods of treating the in- 
sane, a^d from his private fortune built, and for a considerable 
time, and to a very lar^ e expense, maintained an asylum for the 
development of the best and most rational treatment of this 
unfortunate class. He made the acquaintance of Sir Wm. J- n- 
ner and became deeply inierested in the subject of vaccination 
and in the discoveries and experiments which had been made by 
that eminent physician, and obtaining a large supply of virus 
from Jenner, came to Philadelphia in 1799 and introduced the 
practice of vaccination there and for the first time in this coun- 
try. The claim that he was the first to introduce vaccination 
in the Ucited States has been disputed, but so far as I can learn 
he IS entitled to precedence in that regard. In any event, he 
caused its intrrduction here, he gave liberally of his means to 
enable it to be thoroughly tested and its successful results dem- 
onstrated, asking ao fee nor reward, seekinz only in that regard 
as in all the other acts of his life, to further the interest of and 
be of benefit to mankind. He became acquainted with Jucge 
Cooper, came to Otsego county upon his invitation, bought a 
large tract of land in the Butternut Valley (now a part of the 
town of Morris), built for himself a substantial residence there, 



r6 MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 1907. 

and lived the life of an English gentleman, aboundinij in works 
of benevolence and charity, giving- the benefit of his wise coun- 
sel and experience as a physician when o:casion called therefor, 
finally dyinj: as the result of cisease contracted while making 
one of these professional and charitable visits. 

Learned, benevolent, unostentatious, a churchman with the 
broadest Christian charity for all classes and denominations, it 
seems clear to me that his life and the record of his services 
entitle him to be classed as one of Otsego's men of note. 

Drs. Thomas Fuller of Cooperstown, Sumner Ely of Mid- 
dlefield, Halsey Spencer of Edmestcn, G. W. P. Wheeler of 
New Lisbon, Samuel H. Case of Oneonta, Gains L Halsey of 
Unadilla, Wm. T. Bassett of Laurens, Jenks S. Sprague of 
Cooperstown, were old fashioned physicians, devoted to and em- 
inent in their profession and were especially skilled as surgeons. 

They were honorable and honored men, respected and loved 
by the people they unselfishly ministered unto and will long be 
gratefully remembered. 

Dr. bpencer was Member of Assembly in 1828 and Sheriff 
of the county in 1840, I think, and Dr. Ely was Memb?r of As- 
sembly in 1836 and Senator 1840-43. 

Farrand Stranahan, 

Was a lawyer in active practice and of good repute at and 
prior to the War of 1812, although attaining no marked prom- 
inence in his profession. He was conspicuous in advocacy and 
support of all measures for the vigorous prosecution of the War 
of 1812 and commanded a regiment throughout that struggle, 
participating in several engagements, notably the battle of 
Queenstown and receiving official commendation for his sol- 
dierly and gallant service. 

He was a man deservedly popular and his military service 
increased the esteem of the people for him, which was evi- 
denced by his nomination and election from what was th2n 
known as the Western District as Senator 1814-16. He became 
for the time the recognized leader of the Otsego Democracy and 
was again sent to the Senate 1823-24. 

He was poor, and his official service was rendered at the 
sacrifice of his law practice, and at the time Cooperstown cele- 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL 77 

brated the 50th anniversary of our National Independence Col. 
Stranahan was imprisoned in the County Jail for debt. The 
sheriff was induced to attend the celebration and bring- Stran- 
ahan with him, and under the stimulus, presumably of patrio- 
tism and good feeling following the dinner, the drinking of 
toasts and the fervid oratory usual up >n such occasions, Stran- 
ahan's debt was paid by a few of his friends and he was re- 
leased from custody. 

Alvan Stewart. 

One of the most notable of the lawyers of this county in its 
early years was Alvan Stewart. 

Born in Washington, N. Y., in 1790, he, after receiving a 
common school education, taught school and studied medicine 
and anatomy at Westfield, Vt., entered Burlington College in 
1809, went to Canada in 1811 and became one of the professors 
at the Royal School at St. Armand, Province of Quebec. He 
gave up this position in September, 1812, presumably on ac- 
count of the War, returned to New York, going to Cherry Val- 
ley and having as he has stated but one dollar, he engaged as 
a teacher in the academy, reading law when net engaged in 
school. 

In fall of 1815 he seems to have had no local hebitatioti, 
taught an Academic School in Kentucky for a time, made a 
little money, later returned to New York, was admitted to prac- 
tice, came to Cherry Valley, paid up his debts and formed a law 
partnership with James O. Morse, continuing in practice in this 
county until about 1832. 

The struggle for supremacy was keen when he came to the 
bar and continued so for many years thereafter. The trial law- 
yer skilled in the arts of oratory commanded the attention of 
the public and trial of suits at law drew large crowds of inter- 
ested spectators and were subjects of public interest and discus- 
sion. 

Such trials and trial practice of that day between men of the 
type of Stewart, Jordan, Williams, Sam'l Starkweather, was a 
keen encounter of the wits between men of high native talent 
who perfectly understood each other's motives and showed infi- 
nite dexterity in twisting facts and arguments to serve their 
purposes. 



78 MONDAY, AUGUST 5, J907. 

The speeches of counsel abounded in wit and humor, in sar- 
casm, in cutting invective, in insinuations, in fervid argumen- 
tation, wherein principles and decisions, analogies and facts 
which made for their clients were marshaled, and persuasion 
and conviction, intellect and feeling all were united in their ap. 
peals to jurors. Here Stewart was in his element. His ap- 
pearance, manners and actions were peculiar, almost ludicrous. 
He was not a profound lawyer and seems never to have studied 
the arrangement of his cases nor to have bestowed any care in 
preparation for the presentation thereof, but his mind was 
richly furnished with thoughts upon every subject which came 
up for discussion in the progress of a trial, and his illustra- 
tions, if sometimes unique in expression, were strikingly appro- 
riate. His greatest power lay in that he could be humorous or 
pathetic, acrimonious or conciliating, denouncing the theories, 
testimony and pleas of the opposition in lofty declamation, and 
almost in the same breath convulsing his audience, the court 
and jury included, by the most laughable exhibitions of ridicule 
or burlesque. In Procter's "Bench and Bar" he is referred to 
as "One of the most powerful adversaries that ever stood before 
a Jury". 

He had no personal enmities and no enemies. Later in lite 
he became an anti-slavery agitator and temperance lecturer 
pledged to total abstinence, the latter a much needed measure 
of reform in his case. In 1842 and again in 1844, he was the 
Prohibition and Anti-slavery candidate for Governor in this 
State, receiving in 1844 15,136 votes. 

Ambrose L. Jordan. 

Born at Hillsdale, Columbia county. New York, in 1791, 
endowed by nature with a strong constitution and the industry, 
perseverance and energy that belong to Scotch-Irish stock, with 
limited education and still more limited finance, he taught 
school, studied law, was admitted to practice in 1813 at age of 
22 years, and forming a partnership with Col. Stranahan, 
entered upon the practice of his profession at Cooperstown. 

He had a commanding figure, fine mobile features, with 
keen kindly eyes, dignified courtly manners, and was as bril- 
liant in conversation as he was impressive and powerful as an 
orator. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL 79 

He was a better lawyer and a closer student than Stewart 
and prepared his cases with far more care, the matter or argu- 
ment he presented being always thoroughly matured. 

Good sense, good humor, ready wit, a lively fancy, un- 
bounded self reliance, shrewdness in detecting the weak points 
of an adversary and infinite powers of ridicule and raillery in 
exposing them characterized him in trial practice and before 
juries. 

It will be conceded I think that he held first place at our 
bar as an advocate until his removal to Hudson in 1820. 

Jabez D. Hammond, 

Born at New Bedford, Mass., 1778, taught school at IS, 
studied and practiced medicine in Reading, Vt., 1799, admitted 
to the bar 1805, settling in Otsego county. 

He was a man of extensive reading, cultivated tastes, had 
sound, practical common sense, great industry, was an accurate 
judge of men and profound in his knowledge of the political 
acts and measures ot his time. 

He was not a fluent speaker, had none of the arts or graces 
of oratory. 

He came to Cherry Valley poor and by industry and thrift 
acquired a competence, being always esteemed an honest, up- 
right, kind-hearted citizen and both as a lawyer and a citizen, 
he had great influence and was deservedly popular. 

He became a powerful political leader and his sagacity was 
recognized by Gov. Clinton, +o whom he was friend and advisor 
and whose political fortunes he contributed greatly to advance. 

He was Member of Congress 1815-17. State Senator and 
Member of Council of Appointment 1815-21. 

County Judge 1838 to 1843. 

He was an author of recognized ability, writing "The Po- 
litial History of New York" and "Life of Silas Wright", and 
a book upon the "Immortality of the Soul''. 

He received the degree of LL. D. from Hamilton College 
1845. 

Levi Beardsley 

Was born at Hoosac, N. Y., Nov. 13, 1785. His iather 



^0 MONDAY, AUGUST 5, J907. 

removed to this county in 1790, settling near the foot of Schuy- 
ler Lake, was admitted to the bar in 1812, and commenced 
the practice of his profession in Cherry Valley in 1826 and Sen- 
ator 1830 to 1838. President of the Senate 1838. He removed 
from the county in 1839 and died in New York City in 1857. 

He was a self educated man, strong physically and men- 
tally, v'ith great executive ability and business sagacity, studi- 
ous and industrious, and was a well read, capable and success- 
ful lawyer. He was one of the founders of the Cherry Valley 
Bank. Early identified with the Democratic party, he became 
one of its recognized State leaders. 

His service in the Assembly and Senate was during a 
period when matters of great oublic interest were under discus- 
sion, and the legislature in both branches was composed of very 
able, practical and influential men. 

Dewitt Clinton was Governor, and was greatly interested 
in and had previously strongly urged the construction of a rail- 
road from Lake Erie through the Southern tier of counties to 
the Hudson substanially upon the lines of the Erie road later 
chartered. A commission to make exploration and survey had 
been authorized, Jabez D. Hammond of this county being one 
of the commissioners. Such commission reported favorably, 
and the adoption of the report became the leading and absorb- 
ing topic of the session, but the measure was defeated by the 
vote of the Canal and Northern counties. 

The first railroad charter in this State was granted at this 
session to the Albany and Schenectady Road. Very little was 
known cf railroads at that day, and great apprehension was 
felt, even by men ot the highest intelligence, as to their practi- 
cal usefulness. Even so learned a man as Chancellor Living- 
ston in 1811 expressed fear "that it was impracticalle to run 
the carriages at the rate of four miles an hour," and that "the 
expense would be much greater than that of Canals, without 
being so convenient." 

Mr. Beardsley was an active supporter of all measures in 
favor of a liberal system of canal and other public improve- 
mentv, and heartily supported Governor Clinton. 

I think many of you may not know that in 1826 and for a 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL, at 

«liort time prior thereto, the people of Otsego county, and of 
the Susquehanna Valley and interior Pennsylvania, were greatly 
interested in a scheme whereby a canal was to be built from the 
^rie Canal to Otsego Lake, thence by lake and slackwater down 
ihe Susquehanna to tide water. 

A hasty survey somewhat dampened the ardor of the pro 
moters of this scheme as it showed a fall of 30 feet at Milford, 
ISO at Unadilla, and 350 at a distance of 110 miles from Otsego 
Lake. The enterprise was not, however, abandoned, another 
survey was made in 1830, and thereunder it was claimed that 
144 out of 153 miles were navigable, only 19 requiring a canal, 
that 70 locks would be needed and 65 dams. This scheme con° 
tinned to be agitated until nearly 1840. 

Sherman Page of Unadilla, then an active lawyer and 
prominent business man, was our Member of Congress 1833-37 
and he introduced a bill which failed of enactment "to aid 
Slack water Navigation from Cooperstown to tide water". 

In the election of 1794 out of 2,961 votes polled in our Con- 
gressional District, Otsego cast 1.487, Onondaga county 101, 
Ontario county then in the extreme West, 32. 

The Erie Canal caused the building of mighty cities and 
thriving villages along its line. 

Had Otsego become a canal county under this scheme, 
Cooperstown would have become a city of an half million inhab- 
itants, and the business fortunes and prosperity of the county 
would have been immeasurablv promoted. 

But: — Could author have immortalized or poet have glorified 
the "Glimmerglass" if it had become a canal feeder? 

My Friends: — There are scores of others entitled to honora- 
ble mention here but the limit of my time is nearly reached. 

The bar of this county of about 1820 was the ablest in the 
State west of the Hudson. 

It must needs be to contest such famous lawyers as Joshua 
C. Spencer of Utica, Elisha Williams of Hudson, Nicholas Hill 
of Albany, Clapp of Chenango and others of that class who 
were wont to attend our Circuits. 

I have spoken of some of the men of note. You will recall 



82 MONDAY, AUGUST 5, J907. 

others perhaps equally distinguished equally noteworthy. 
More than brief mention ought to be made: 
Of Rev. Eiiphalet Nott, who settled in Cherry Valley in 
1796, commencing there his sacred ministrations, going from 
thence to Union College, over which he presided with marked suc- 
cess and honor during all the remaining years of his life. 

Of Johannes Christopher Hartwig. Born in the Province 
of Saxe Gotha, Germany, in 1720, he came to America as a 
Missionary in 1750; May 29th, 1752, he received from the In- 
dians a conveyance of 21,500 acres of land which was confirmed 
by the English Government April 22d, 1761, being nearly all 
the territory included within the bounds of the town of Hart- 
wick. Hartwig paid $500.00 for this tract. Eccentric in man- 
ners, dress and speech, an inveterate hater of women and sub- 
ject to "brain-storms'' at siuht or presence of the sex. 

He gave his name to a patent and a township, and his es- 
tate to found an institution of learning in your county, which 
still survives, being the oldest Lutheran Theological Seminary 
in the United States, its beneficent work and yearly increasing 
influence keeping clear and ever discernible "the foot prints on 
the sands of time," made by its founder and benefactor in 1796. 

Of Martin Grover. Born in Hartwick, receiving a very 
limited education, not considered in his boyhood nor in early 
manhood gifted with more than ordinary intelligence, he taught 
school, studied law at Burlington in the office of Wm. G. Angel 
and later removed with him to the wilds of the extreme West, 
in the county of Chautauqua. 

The quiet, stolid, reticent boy, of slow, careful speech, and 
deliberate thought and action, became a successful lawyer, was 
elected Nov. 5th, 1867, a Supreme Court Justice, and his opin- 
ions are models of condensed thought, cogent reasoning, and 
sound judicial interpretation, construction, and decision. 

Of Wm. G. Angel, whose family were among the early set- 
tlers of Burlington, who practiced law there (Martin Grover 
and Geo. S. Gorham being students in his office), who was sur- 
rogate under appointment of Feb. 13th, 1820, and a Member. of 
Congress, 19th, 21st and 22d Congresses, who later removed 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 83 

to Chautauqua county, then in the wilderness, and founded the 
village of Angelica. 

Of Robert Campbell, James O. Morse and William W. 
Campbell. All college graduates, men of culture and high 
character, capable, honorable and successful business men and 
lawyers of Cherry Valley, Robert Campbell, District Attorney 
in 1820, James O. Morse, County Judge in 1832 and William W. 
Campbell, Member of Congress, Judge of the Superior Court 
and Justice of the Supreme Court, adding to his well earned 
fame as a jurist, that of an historian by his "Annals of Tryon 
county." 

Of Horace Lathrop. The quiet, reticent, studious lawyer 
mainly devoted to oflSce practice, honest and honorable in all 
things, with a rare and subtle wit, a keen appreciation of the 
humorous happenings of every dav life, qualities which he 
transmitted to his son Horace, the well beloved physician, whose 
memory is perennially fresh and green in all our hearts. 

Of John A. Dix, who after a brief army service resigned 
and commenced practice as a lawyer in this village, residing at 
"Apple Hill." His residence here was brief and uneventful. 
In 1833 he was elected by the Democrats as Secretary of State 
and United States Senator in 1845. In the early days of 1861 
he was Secretary of the Treasury under Buchanan. He issued 
the order which made him famous, "If any man attempts to 
haul down the American flag shoot him on the spot." He was 
later made a Major General, Minister to France under Grant 
(1867-68) and was elected Governor of this State in 1872. 

Of Samuel Starkweather, powerful, physically and men- 
tally, the chief antagonist of Stewart and Jordan, concise and 
logical in speech, convincing in argument, who held a leading 
place at our bar down to 1831. 

Of George A. Starkweather, graduate of Union, admitted 
to practice about 1823, Surrogate in 1833, who was prominent in 
professional life and active in the political affairs of the county 
for more than 30 years. 

Of Eben B. Morehouse, admitted in 1818, who early won 
exceptional rank in his profession. District Attorney in 1829, 
and member of Assembly in 1831, whose legal acquirements ad- 



84 MONDAY, AUGUST 5, J907. 

mirably 5tted him for the position of Justice of the Supreme 
Court, to which he was elected in 1847, and whose charming 
personality made him well beloved by all classes of people in 
this village. 

Of John Cox Morris of Revolutionary ancestry, scholarly, 
digni6ed, courtly, learned in the law, who succeeded Dr. White 
as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas about 1823. 

Of Schuyler Crippen, whose legal erudition and extensive 
practice, supplemented by service as District Attorney in 1837 
and as Surrogate in 1845, as well as public and private charac- 
ter commended him to his brethren of the bar and to the people 
of this judicial district as Justice of the Supreme Court. 

Of Lyman J. Walworth, acquiring by force of industry, 
perseveracce and dogged determination, a lucrative practice, 
and overcoming fearful odds, for who that ever heard Wal- 
worth address an audience, can forget his personal appearance, 
attitudes and manner, as he bent his body almost to the ground, 
springing up suddenly and standing upon tiptoe as he swung his 
arms over his head, adding to the grotesqueness of his physical 
attitudes and actions, an hesitating tone, and drawling empha- 
sis. 

Of Samuel S. Bowne, who never attained eminence as a 
great lawyer, but was undeniably the finest and most effective 
political speaker, and powerful advocate, before a jury, the county 
has produced, few men enjoying a mere enviable popularity. 
He was Member of Congress from this district in 27th Congress. 

He inherited bis oratorical gifts from his father, Joseph 
Bowne, who had a national reputation as a Quaker Preacher. 

Ot John H Prentiss, Editor for over 40 years of the Free- 
man's Journal, establishing it firmly as a party organ of recog- 
nized power and influence in the State and Nation. 

He was succeeded by Mr. Samuel M. Shaw, whose unselfish 
devotion to this village, its people and its interests; whose all 
embracing charity and active benevolence; whose Christian 
life, worth and work and whose private virtues, no less than 
his marked abilities as an Editor and party leader caused him 
to be respected, honored and loved by men of all parties, classes 
and creeds. He honored me with his friendship and I count it 
as one of my most precious recollections. 



.THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL 85 

Under Col. Prentiss and graduates from the Journal office 
were Thurlow Weed, later to become an Editor of commanding 
influence, a political leader of recognized sagacity, a Warwick of 
Republican politics, dictating platforms, policies and candidates, 
for nearly forty years of a remarkably useful and eventful life; 
and William L. Stone, later Editor, publisher, historian, au- 
thor, as Editor of the Commercial Advertiser from and after 
1821, making that paper the representative organ of conserva- 
tive business and commercial interests, in the city of New York, 

You would not forgive me if I failed to speak of the noblest 
old Roman of them all, whose broad shouldered and magnificent 
figure, massive head, crowned with its wealth of grev hair, was 
so familiar to the people of this village and is so lovingly 
remembered now. 

Samuel Nelson, born in Hebron, N. Y., Nov. 11, 1792, of 
Scotch-Irish ancestry, inherited the traits of industry, persever- 
ance, firmness and courage which characterized him in after 
life. 

His parents intended him for the Ministry and gave him tc 
that end a collegiate education, but he preferred the law to the 
church, and after four years of study, at age of 25, was in 1817 
admitted to practice. 

In 1821 he was a member of the Constitutional Conventioiii 
Martin Van Buren being one of Otsego's delegates in that con- 
vention, and 25 years later Judge Nelson was again chosen tc 
the Constitutional Convention of 1846. 

Upon the reorganization of the Supreme Court perfected by 
the Constitution of 1821, Governor Yates appointed Judge Nel- 
son as Judge of the Sixth Circuit and in 1823 he entered upon 
that remarkable judicial career, which continued for nearly 
fifty years. He served eight years as Circuit Judge and Vice- 
Chancellor, then six years as Justice of the Supreme Court, un- 
der appointment by Governor Throop, and in 1837 Governor 
Marcy appointed Judge Nelson as Chief Justice and he ccntin* 
ued in that position for nearly eight years and until President 
Tyler in 1845, without solicitation or expectation, nominated 
him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United 
States. 

The Senate which had rejected the nominations of John C. 



56 MONDAY, AUGUST 5, J907. 

Spencer, of Silas Wright and of Chancellor Reuben H. Wal- 
worth, immediately and unanimously confirmed the nomination 
of Judge Nelson. 

He had at this time reached the culmination of his powers. 
He had pre-eminentlv a legal intellect, his experience upon the 
bench had familiarized him with all the intricacies of practice, 
he was a tireless student with a profound knowledge of juris- 
prudence, he had sound judgment, great clearness of thought 
and strength of reasoning, was dignified, yet graciously couite- 
ous, and had and held the respect, admiration and love of the 
bar as was so fully evidenced upon his retirement. 

In 1871 President Grant appointed him as one of the five 
members on the part of the United States of the Joint High 
Commission, and the Treaty of Washington bears witness to 
the wisdom ot his counsel and the inestimable value of his set- 
Tice. 

He was a Great Jurist. 

The Man was infinitely greater than the Judge. 

He was Cooperstown's First Citizen. 

Thus I close the record of Otsego's Men of Note. 

*'Time rolls his ceaseless course. The race of yore, 

Who danced our infancy upon their knee, 

And told our marvelling boyhood legend's store 

Of their strange ventures happ'd by land or sea; 

How they are blotted from the things that be; 

How few, all weak, and withered of their force. 

Wait on the verge of dark eternity. 

Like stranded wrecks, the tide returning hoarse, 

To sweep them from our sight; 

Time rolls his ceaseless course." 



Centennial Exercises 



Tuesday, August 6th, 1907, 
Regatta on the Lake. 

The regatta on Otsego Lake, on Tuesday the 6th, was, under 
the admirable management of the Committee on Athletics, 
entirely successful, as indeed were all the events in charge of 
that committee, of which Professor W. H. Martin was the very 
efficient chairman. The lake with its circling amphitheatre 
of green hills and its surface of dancing waves formed a perfect 
Betting for the spirited scene of splashing oars, speeding 
launches, and white-winged sailboats. The shores were lined 
with spectators who while watching the races were at the same 
time regaled with the excellent music of the Tenth Regiment 
Band. 

The races resulted as follows: 

Class A— Winkie Wee (W. C. Stokes) 27:58; Helen (Dr. 
Garlinghouse) 34:15. Class B — Dixie (Spraker) 45:28; Townsends 
(Townsend). 45:47; Lvdia (C.ark), 46:51; Iris (Couirer), 44:49. 
Marguerite (Burton, Butler and Cooke), 44:61; Class C — Chiqui- 
ta (Lippitt), 58:51; Judas M. (Eldred), 52:11; Topsy (Johnson), 
49:12. 

^X Sailing race — Constitution, owned by John M. Bowers, and 
sailed by Arthur Coppel, won; Nettie, owned by A. Gazley, 
■ailed by Charles Keese, second. Time — One hour, forty-nine 
minutes forty-eight seconds. 

Single scull, ladies — Miss Carol Chrisler won, time five 
sinutes, ten seconds. Miss Gladys Mason second. 
V Single scull, men — Joseph Willsey won, time four minutes, 
tkree seconds. W. P. Chrisler, second. 

Double sculls, boys under 16 — Lynn J. Arnold, Jr., and 
Arthur Cobbett won, time, four minutes, twelve seconds. 
Cbarles Root and Mr. Donaldson second. 



88 TUESDAY. AUGUST 6. J907. 

Double sculls, men — Joseph Willsev and W. P. Chrisler womw 
time three minutes, forty-five seconds. ::>tepnen jonnson and 

Mr. Myers seconu. 

Ladies' doubles — Miss Carol Chrisler and Miss Mary Glc- 
£exi| first; Miss Gladys Mason and Miss Nan Chrisler, second. 

Mixed doubles — J. Pier Mason and Miss Chrisler won, Mr. 
Willsey and Miss Mason, second. 

ihe reg"atta was in charge ot the following-: 

Commodore, L. N. Wood; vice commodore, Rev. S. S. Con- 
ger; starter, W. H. Martin; judges. Dr. J. B. Conkling, John 
K. Kirby; timers. Prof. M. J. Multer, E. D. Stocker; clerk of 
course, R. Grant White. 




1. Christ Church Yard. 3. Dr. Battershall Speaking. 3. Children 

Singing at Cooper's Grave. 



Centennial Exercises 



Wednesday, August 7, 1907t 
Athletics. 



The Athletic games of Wednesday the 7th, took place on 
«bore. They were well managed and promptly played. Of 
these games Chairman Martin reported: 

At the play-grounds of the Cooper Park, between the One- 
©uta Independents and the A. C. C. Gym. team, took place in 
the morning a spirited game of basket ball. The splendid 
.enth Regiment Band made the air melodious before and dur« 
ing the rest between halves, and the large audience assembled 
voder the trees and lying on the grass hugely enjoyed the game 
from beginning to end. The result was in favor ot the Oneonta 
hoys, who bore away the honors with a score of 12 hard earned 
points against 11 for the home team. 

OflBcers of the game— Referee — Lee Van Woert. Umpire— 
A. O. Blowers. Timekeeper and scorer — W. H. Martin. One- 
onta Independents — J. J. Carson, captain and forward; Frank 
Huntington, L. forward; Leslie Hanford, center; B. Hoye, R, 
guard, Albert Getman, L. guard; H. Gord, substitute. A. C. C. 
^.— Chas. Rdubacher, captain and R. forward; Charles Schnei- 
der, L. forward; John Wedderspoon, center; John Raubacher, 
JR. guard; Allen Brisack, L. guard. 

The athletic events which were originally scheduled to take 
place on the fair grounds, were changed, during the forenoon, 
to Main street, and as a consequence, they were witnessed by 
many more people than they otherwise would have been. They 
occurred between 2 and 4 p. m. The results were as follows: 

Running high jump — First, John Raubacher; second, 
%^liarles Raubacher. 



90 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, J907. 

Hurdles — First, John Raubacher, second, C. D. White. 

Hundred yard dash — First, C. D. White; second, John Rau- 
bacher. 

220 yards — First, C. D. White; second, John Raubacher. 

Quarter mile — First, C. D. White; second, N. Gross. 

One-half mile — First, Harry Fowler; second, N. Gross. 

The half-mile relay race, each man running an eighth of a 
mile, was won by a team consisting of John Raubacher, Hugh 
Lippitt, Allen Brisack, Harry Fowler. The opposing team 
consisted of C D. White, Nelson Butcher, George Raubacher, 
George Eckler. 

For these events and on account of the change from the 
fair grounds to the street, the distances had to be all meaiured 
off, and hurdles and jumping stands put in place. 

Everything passed off satisfactorily and with very little 
complaint. The prizes gave general satisfaction, the plan of 
having their value from our own merchants was appreciated. 



Exercises at Cooper's Grave. 



A very large assemblage gathered in Christ Churchyard on 
the afternoon ot Wednesday at five o'clock to take part in the 
■olemn services around the grave of the great author. 

::::iJ|The excercises were opened with a procesaioa of young 
girls, dressed in white, who surrounded the tomb and were un- 
der the direction of Mr. A. deJ. Allez, Choir master of Christ 
Church. 

Miss Florence Wilkinson, the poetess then recited the 
following graceful tribute: 

How well we loved our forest friends of yore, 
Charles Cap, the swarthy runner, Alice fair, 

How wise we were those days in Indian lore, 
The Tuscarora and the Delaware! 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 9i 

We laughed when David Gamut droned his hymn, 
We envied Uncas his green hunting-shirt; 

We wept when Dew-of-June's bright hopes grew dim, 
And oh, the beauteous Cora's deadly hurt! 

How brave it was in childish days of old, 

To lurk like wild beast in some cavern nook, 

Or range the woods as Hurry-Harry the bold, 
Or thrill all hearts like noble Chingachgook. 

Redskin and pale-face, dogs of Iroquois, 

Windrow, canoe and trail — 
Ay, steeped we were in woodcraft, girl and boy. 
How personal the glamour of each tale! 

Such tender females were the women then, 

The Indian stately as an English lord, 
And wondrous Hawk-Eye was the king of men, 

His Carbine famed as Arthur's mystic sword. 

Psychology and folk-lore, let them go. 

Mumbling dry criticism turn and pass. 
While Cooper, kindling young hearts to a glow, 

Stretches his magic wand o'er Glimmerglass. 

The children then sang the following lyric composed tor the 
occasion by Mr. Andrew B. Saxton: 

O, thou above whose hallowed bed 

The pine each year its tribute showers, 
Although the passing summer brings 
Its harvest of familiar things, 

How far thy lifetime seems from ours! 

And yet how near, for day by day 

The silver clouds are in the sky. 
And when the slanting sunbeams make 
A path of glory on the lake. 

Just as of old the shadows lie ! 

And where the evening hearthstone glowed 

Before there fell this slumber deep, 
The hunter lifts his head in air, 
To gaze across the valley where 

His buried kindred also sleep. .^ 'Z 



92 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, J907. 

Born to a world which fails to keep 

The simpler life of yester-year, 
We come when summer days are long, 
To make an offering of song 

And strew the flowers of memory here. 

For one whose fingers, years ago, 

Their work well finished, dropped the pen; 

Whose master mind from land and sea 

Drew forms heroic, long to be 

The living types of vanished men; 

For one whose genius manifold 

Had many fields of labor claimed; 
Who, when the angel's pointing hand, 
Was guidance to a better land, 

Left naught whereof to be ashamed. 

O, great magician, may the life 

We lead be such an one as thine — 
A simple life, transcending art, 
A spirit close to Nature's heart, 

A soul as strong and clear, and fine! 

And when for us the final word 

Is spoken o'er the pulseless clay, 
May there, for those who love, endure, 
The memory of a life as pure 

As thine, of whom we sing to-day! 

After singing the children gathered around the grave and 
covered the marble slab with the flowers of the season. 

The remaining exercises took place upon the temporary 
platform erected in front of the church door on which were 
seated those who were to take part in the same; the band being 
stationed in front. The Reverend Ralph Birdsall opened with 
the following address: 

The privilege is mine, as Rector here, to welcome you who 
come to honor the world-famed son of this village church, and 
to freshen the laurel upon his grave, which this church guards^ 

The grave of Cooper has become in fifty years a shrine of 
literary pilgrimage. No other famous tomb is quite like this in 
the quality of surprise which it excites in every visitor. Tht 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 93 

stranger, entering the churchyard gate, looks about him for 
some conspicuous signal of Cooper's resting place. He antici- 
pates some boastful monument, commensurate with the author's 
fame, standing high above all else, flaunting its claim for hom- 
age. But this he seeks in vain. Highest of the monuments is 
that of the rugged missionary priest and pioneer of a century 
ago. Everywhere are grave stones inscribed with names long 
forgotten and unknown. Truly, the expectation is disap- 
pointed. But when the stranger chances upon th** path well- 
worn by the feet of pilgrims, and stands at last by Cooper's 
grave, he divines that the expectation is rightly disappointed. 
It is far more impressive and affecting to find it so. It is not 
the simple tomb which is at fault, but the expectancy of its be- 
ing otherwise. No proudly glittering monument marks the 
grave of Cooper, but a plain, unpolished slab of stone. It is a 
marble that bears upon its surface no praise for the fame or 
virtues of the dead; only his name with the dates of birth and 
death. None of the insignia of the au'hor's craft are carved 
thereon, nor Indian emblems suggestive of his famous tales; 
only a small and simple cross, the symbol of the faith in which 
he lived and died, and upon which he based his hope of immor- 
tality. It is a grave that claims for its charge no higher place 
than any among the dead. He lies with the lowest of the low. 
He does not eclipse the soldier, lying near, who died for his 
country upon the field of war. The tomb of the aged slave, be- 
neath the same sod asleep, is not less notable. Old neighbors 
who exchanged the friendly nod with him in life are not less 
honored now. Hands lie still beneath the sward that were cal- 
lous from the axe and shovel. The hand that wrought pen 
pictures for the world is there at rest, surmounted by no higher 
landmark. 

Nothing could be finer than the significant simplicity which 
thus commemorates Cooper as a Christian. But the time has 
come when Cooper the author requires a monument more elo- 
quent of his genius and repute. Cooper's fame demands such a 
monument in Cooper's town. One can picture in the mind's eye 
the effect of a living statue of Cooper wrought by the artistry 
of a great sculptor. Such a statue should find its place not in 
the churchyard which contains the grave, not in the cemetery 



94 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, J907. 

which contains the Leatherstocking Monument , but at the life 
center of the village which Cooper loved, and where he lived, 
and wrote, and died. Let it stand on the Main Street, amid the 
square that fronts the old site of Otsego Hall and northward 
commands the lake in sweeping view. Let the statue represent 
the author seated, pen in hand, gazing dreamily for inspiration 
upon Glimmerglass where the phantom creatures of his 
genius brood. 

The pageantry of this Centennial will be soon forgot. A 
monument as the fruit of this commemoration would give it the 
value of timeless permanence. Let there be continued, when 
this celebration has concluded, a Committee devoted to the erec- 
tion of a Memorial Statue of James Fenimore Cooper. Let 
there be added to this Committee, or rather superimposed with 
their consent and cordial support, the names of men illusstrious 
in literature to-day. Let lovers of Cooper throughout the world 
share the privilege of erecting to the founder of American ro- 
mance a monument worthy ot his imperishable fame. 

The "Rt. Rev. Henry C. Potter, D. D., then spoke as fol- 
lows: 

Ladies and Gentlemen; 

I have been asVed to read some verses written for this occa- 
sion by a woman of illustrious genius and exceptional fame, 
Mrs. Julia Ward Howe. And after I have read them arrange- 
ments have been made that "The Battle Hymn of the Repub- 
lic", by which Mrs. Howe is known throughout this broad 
land, will be sung. 

"What village of the western wild 

Lifts its far challenge of romance 

From forests by the axe unspoiled, 

From where the skin-clad sachems dance? 

Whose W3S the note? A bard of old 
Held Nature subject to his sotig, 

Whose ringing strophes, clear and bold. 
The echoes of the world prolong. 

So, kindled with poetic fire. 

Aspiring from the virgin sod 

Came he who, to our heart's desire 
The measure of the Muses trod. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL, 95 

"What voice like his the legend taught 

The story of our pilgrim days, 
The march with deadly danger fraught, 

The heroes ignorant of praise: 

The hunter bold, the savage dark, 

The breath of regions unprofaned, 
The rover with his phantom bark, 

The valiant spirits, rudely trained? 

Be dear to us this sylvan ground 

That holds his ashes in its breast, 
While songs of love and praise resound 

Above the beauty of his rest. 

JULIA WARD HOWE. 

Bishop Potter: Introducing the Rev. Dr. Battershall: 

Ladies and Gentlemen: — 

The Chairman has assigned to me the delightful duty of 
introducing the poet of the occasion, the Rev. Dr. Walton W. 
Battershall, Rector of St. Peter's Church in Albany. Dr. Bat- 
tershall is Rector of the Church, the Bishop cf which before 
this diocese was set apart from its mother, was himself a Rector 
of St. Peter's Church and a kinsman of mine. Dr. Battershall 
was born in Troy. (I am not prepared to say, my dear brother, 
as thev say in Boston, that anybody who is born in Troy does 
not need to be born again!) but, as a Rector of Troy who had 
the privilege of knowing Dr. Battershall in his youth when he 
was a Curate of mine in St. John's Church, it was my great 
privilege early to recognize those altogether exceptional gifts 
which he will illustrate here to-day. 

Our poet has but one infirmity. He sometimes forgets! I 
congratulate myself and you that he has not forgotten to come 
here to-day. 

The Rev. Dr. Battershall: 

Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I appreciate the honor of being permitted to say a word of 
appreciation on this significant occasion; and I appreciate the 
honor of being introduced oy the Metropolitan Prelate, my old 
friend and chieftain in the Trov davs. 



96 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, J907. 

Around the marble, sculptured with the name 

That gave long echoes from the mantled hills 

Which frame the glittering mirror of the lake, 

Throng presences of olden time and type, 

Plastic with life, shot through with mortal blood, 

Living forever in that vast hall 

Of imagery, beyond the toucn of death. 

Above the grave of Cooper, stalwart soul 

And clean, that fought his fight with trenchant blade 

For faith and truth, and died, marked with the Cross, 

No fairy footfalls twinkle in the grass, 

As in the great Magician's summer-night 

Of impish frolic and bewitched sleep 

The creatures of his brain that haunt the spot, 

And hail the wizard of the tangled wood 

And fretted wave, were men, carved in their flesh, 

Borne on or underneath the wheel of life, 

With love or guile or dedicated vow, 

Sweeping their spirit like a harper's hand. 

Of^those who told the stories of the world. 
There are who pushed their caravels across 
Forgotten or uncharted seas of time, 
Discovering new continents of thought 
And phantasy. Of such are thou the seer 
And recreator of the vanished life 

Of the primeval forest of the West, 

Where in the brooding silence and the shades 

Pierced by uncertain glimmers thou didst see. 

Or seem to see with visionary eye, 

Ulysses in high council with the chiefs, 

Or Hector flying from Achilles' spear. 

The world thou didst discover is thine own, 

No footprints didst thou find except thine own. 

And those whose form and thought and vital breath 

Move in thy epic story, like that throng, 

Impassicnate, wrought on the Grecian urn, 

Of which the poet caught the immortal rhythm. 

What chance, or trick of brain, or subtle law 



THE CCXDPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. W 

That links things by their contrast, brings the grave 
Of him with dreamful eyes, whose name is writ 
In the warm marble of his chiseled verse, 
And not in water, as he dying, moaned 
Beside the grave of him, who put his own 
Unquenched fire in virile shapes of life, 
Peopling the wilderness, and who now lies 
In the sun's laughter rippling o'er the lake? 

The old world and the newl The same old play 

Of manhood, greed and stress of circumstance, 

Whate'er the setting and the pageantry 1 

He gave new accents to the ancient tale, 

And deftly wrought the assemblage and the march, 

And staged the drama of creative days, 

In which the Empire of the West had birth. 

And men, shaped in the clash of wild frontiers, 

Whose moulds are broken, fought for a continent. 

Fair GlimmerglassI He hath enchanted thee, 
And filled with dreams thy sleep amid the hills. 
The footprints of that fateful fight are on 
Thy marge and, in the moonlight silvering 
Thy face, guide spectral shapes. 

The Muskrat's ark 

Creeps in the faint breath of the silent night. 
Big Serpent, son of Uncas, holds his tryst 
Sharp at the appointed sunset on the rock. 
Hard by the serpent river's leafy source; 
And Hist, the Honeysuckle of the Hills, 
Hears in the Huron camp his squirrel-note. 
Still, in the twilight of soft summer eyes, 
Sweet hymns and orisons float on the air 
From the canoe of Hetty, as she prays 
Over her mother's grave beneath the lake. 
And now, as in those storied days, Judith, 
The Splendid, queens it in her tragedy, 
With warm, brave eyes, facing the Nemesis 
Of her inheritance and fatal dower. 
As the night deepens and the stars burn clear 
Like beacon-fires, we catch tbe quiet voice 



n WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, (907. 

Of Deerslayer, him of the straight tongue, white 
In thought and deed, the moccasined Parsifal^ 
Making his argument lor tortured death 
To keep the word he pledged the torturers. 

Hpre, in the mystic beauty of the lake, 
To which he gave life's pathos and its might, 
Which crept into his youth and haunted him 
Across the seas, nor played him false, but breathed 
When he brought back to it his crowned life, 
Its gracious balm on his unbroken force, 
He sleeps, in shadow of the shrine in which 
He read the riddle of that mystic sleep. 

WALTON W. BATTERSHALL. 




James Fenliuore Cooper, at the age of CO. 



Centennial Exercises 



Thursday, August 8, 1907, 

Parade 
and Literary Exercises. 



The events of Thursday drew together the largest crowd 
seen in Cooperstown in many a year. It is safe to say that it 
numbered at least 15,000. From the band concert, which opened 
at 10 o'clock until the conclusion of the fireworks at 10 P. M., 
there was hardly a cessation of the entertainment. It is to the 
credit of both the village and its visitors that no disturbance or 
disorder occurred at anytime nor was there anything to mar the 
pleasure of the assembled throng. 

At 2 o'clock in the afternoon occurred the big local parade. 
It was very fine and pleased everyone. The parade was in 
charge of Morgan R. Stocker as Grand Marshal, with staff com- 
posed of Hon. Lynn J. Arnold, R. Grant White, Morgan John- 
ston, Robert Arnold, Arthur Coppell, Walter W. Stokes, Ste- 
phen C. Clark, W. Perry Chrisler, J. Pier Mason. 

The parade was formed in the following order: Platoon of 
Police, Grand Marshal and Staff, Tenth Regiment Band, Coop- 
erstown Fire Department, James" J. Byard, Jr., chief, David 
Willsey and William C. Tabor, assistants; Neptune Engine Co., 
24 men and officers; Steamer Hose Co., 22 men and officers; Iro- 
quois Hose Co., 16 men and officers; Mechanics Hook and Ladder 
Co., 16 men and officers; Edward Clark Hose Company, 20 men 
and officers; Drill Corps of 24 Orphanage boys. 

The second section was composed of historic floats and ex- 
hibits and was very interesting. Float No. 1, represented the 
Indian before the coming of the white man. It showed an In- 



iOO THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, J907. 

dian in full costume representing Cooper's Chingachgook, seat- 
ed in his canoe. 

Float No. 2, represented George Washington in costume of 
his time, seated in front of his tent near a forest of pines. 

Float No. 3, was an ox cart drawn by two oxen in which were 
riding the grandmother, grandfather, father, mother and some 
children. 

Float No. 4, represented the early white settlers and in this 
Natty Bumpo appeared with his rifle at the door of his little 
log hut in the forest. 

Float No. 5. was the historic stage coach which used to run 
between Cooperstown and Catskill before the advent ot the 
steam railroad to the Susquehanna Valley. 

Float No. 6, was modern coaching as represented by the 
smart foui-in-hand of F. Ambrose Clark, driven bv Waldo John- 
ston, accompanied by a lady. 

Float No. 7, was the family coach of Gen. John A. Dix 
used here in 1830, in which were riding Cuyler E. Carr and Miss 
Gladys Mason. The cairiage was driven by Darius Salisbury. 

Float No. 8, was the old hand fire engine, Neptune, used m 
1840, with three of the veteran firemen on it. 

Float No. 9, veterans of the L- C. Turner Post, with old fifer 
and drummer, ail dressed in Civil War costume. 

Float No. 10, Sons of Veterans of J. F. Clark Camp in pres- 
ent-day military dress. 

Float No .11, twenty girls from the Orphanage, founded in 
1870 by Miss Susan Fenimore Cooper. 

Float No. 12, representing a modern hoppicking scene with 
pickers, box tenders, etc. 

Float No. 13, the ambulance from Thanksgiving Hospital. 

Float No. 14, A modern industry — Francis Wagon Works. 

The parade passed over the principal streets of the village, 
to the Court House grounds where it was dismissed and the liter- 
ary exercises began at 4 o'clock. 

After an overture by the band, Rev. Ralph Birdsall intro- 
duced the chairman of the Literary Committee, saying: 

Religion and history have had their rightful place in this 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 101 

Centennial Commemoration. But, in the eyes of the world the 
largfer interest of htis Celebration has to do with that splendid 
literary reputation which associates the history of this village 
with the glowing pages of romance. We celebrate James Feni- 
more Cooper. The Chairman of this occasion, whom it is my 
privilege to introduce, is one who, as a child, sat at the feet of 
the great novelist, and as a man, having traversed many lands 
and seas, dwells again in the village of his early love, where he 
has rescued from oblivion "Natty Bumppo's Diary", and ever 
charms us with his gift of verse, the Hon. John VVorthington. 

Hon, John Worthington introducing Prof. Brander Mat- 
thews, said: 

The Significance of this celebration is manifestly local but 
gains a peculiar dignity by gathering to itself the world-wide 
sweep of Cooper's pen. 

No place, either in distance or in atmosphere, seems more 
remote from our Glimmerglass than the palace of an Oriental 
Potentate. And yet, it was in such a palace that I heard from 
the lips of Tewfik Pasha Mohammed, the then Khedive of 
Egypt, an expression of admiration for Cooper that could not be 
excelled in earnestness and ardor by any utterance of his most 
enthusiastic American appreciator. 

The environments of a man often influence his intellectual 
sensibilities; so that the Khedive's relish for Cooper's writings 
appears extraordinary in one whose local horizon included the 
gray deserts, the man-built pyramids and the enigmatical 
sphynx, the rock-hewed tombs with their millions of mummies, 
and with all the land of Egypt's stately Pharoahic and Patri- 
archial traditions and florid Arabian embellishments. 

What contrast could be greater — the green hills of Otsego 
and the sterile sands of the Lybian desert! 

Yet, this native Egyptian, Tewfik Pasha, the hereditary 
ruler of millions of Mohammedans, whose Bible was the Koran, 
and whose instincts and impulses were of Egyptian birth and 
growth, knew his Cooper as an Englishman knows his Shakes- 
peare! 

In 1883 I had an audience with His Highness, in his palace 
on the Nile. He was polite and^courteous, and our conversation 



102 THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 1907. 

■was formal and perfunctory, until, in reply to an amiable in- 
quiry, I stated that my American home was in a village in New 
York State, named Cooperstown. At the mention of the word 
"Cooperstown'" the Khedive to my surprise, exhibited an inter- 
est that clearly was genuine. 

"Cooperstown," he repeated, "Is not Cooperstown the home 
of Fenimore Cooper, the great author?" 

It was my turn to exhibit interest, and I asked it His High- 
ness was acquainted with the writings of the novelist. His re- 
ply was to the effect that when a student in Paris he had come 
upon Cooper's "Spy" which (strangely enough) had interested 
him greatly. Then he read the "Leatherstocking Tales," and 
they opened up a New World to him — and na was charmed. 
Tne sublime and shadowy forests, the silent lakes high up in 
evergreen hills, the cool rivers — how they captivated his imag- 
ination ! how they invited his soull He would, he exclaimed, 
give a year of his life if he might view the Glimmerglass — if 
he could tread a forest trail. 

He had read all, every one, of Cooper's books. Some of 
them he cared little for, but those he did care for he loved. He 
»'adored" the "Deerslayer," and when he read of Hetty's burial 
in the lake, he said tears filled his eyes at the mournful narra- 
tion. "How beautiful — how exquisitely sadi" 

His Highness asked me if Leatherstocking was not more 
than a creature of the Author's briin, was he not flesh and 
blood? He asked many questions about Cooper himself: had 
the Americans not erected a grand mausoleum over the place of 
his grave? Did any other American write as Cooper wrote? 

In his fine library of books the Khedive showed me, with 
▼ery evident satisfaction, his three magnificent sets of Cooper's 
works, in French, German and English. 

On that occasion I spent an hour with Tewfik Pasha Mo- 
hammed, and nearly all his talk related to the literary achieve- 
ments of the man in whose honored memory these exercises are 
held. : 

I venture to think that the incident is not an inappropriate 
one to recall at this time and place. The banks of the Nile are 
a far-cry from the banks of the Susquehanna, but the genius of 




Mr. "Worthington Introducing Speakers. 2. Mr. IVlatthews Speaking. 
3. Mr. iscollard Speaking. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. J©3 

€«oper brought the viceroyal palace of Abidan very close to the 
Unskrat Castle of the sunken islands, and by the same token it 
kssened the distance between the ornate minaret of the Mosque 
cf Sultan Hasan and the simple cross-crowned steeple of the lit- 
ile church in Cooperstown. 

Thus Cooper, with his literary grasp of the primeval in 
America has struck a note so universal as to sound an echo in 
ike heart of the man farthest removed from Cooper's scenes and 
subjects. This is an achievement in letters which gives Cooper 
a lasting fame and accords to America an eminent place in the 
literature of the world. Americans perhaps have been slowest 
©f all to recognize this peculiar value of Cooper's work. 

It is fitting that, upon this occasion, the address commemO' 
fative of James Fenimore Cooper should be delivered by that 
American man of letters who is most distinguished for the in- 
tight and the courage with which he has always championed 
ike distinctively American in the literature of our land. 

I take pleasure in introducing Prof. Brander Matthews of 
Columbia University. 



"FENIMORE COOPER.' 



By Brander Matthews. 



It is with keen pleasure that an American man of letter* 
accepts the privilege of commemorating again the genius of 
Fenimore Cooper, — the earliest of our authors to be widely read 
beyond the boundaries of our own language, as Irving, his elder 
contemporary, was the earliest to win attention outside the bor- 
ders of our own land. It is well for us that the first American nor- 
elist to reveal American character to the nations of Europe was 
himself stalwart in his own Americanism, full of the faith that 
sustains us all. As Parkman has declared, "Cooper's geniui 
drew aliment from the soil where God had planted it, and rose 
to a vigorous growth, rough and gnarled, but strong as a moun- 
tain cedar." And as Lowell has finely phrased it, Cooper 
"looked about him to recognize in the New Man of the New 
World an unhackneyed and unconventional subject for art;" he 
"studied from the life, and it was the homo Americanus, with our 
own limestone in his bones, and our own iron in his blood, that 
sat to him." 

The American whom Cooper painted in his pages is the 
American in the making; and it is the earlier makers of Amer- 
ica that he has depicted with sympathetic sincerity, — the sol- 
dier, the sailor, the settler, the backwoodsman, sturdy types all 
of them, that gave no false impression of us to the rest of the 
world. And in thus portraying the men who made possible the 
nation as we know it to-day, he performed a splendid service to 
the country he loved devotedly. And his service to our litera- 
ture is equally obvious. He wrote the first American historical 
novel, which remains to this day one of the best. He was the 
first to venture a storv of the sea; and no one of the writers who 
have followed in his wake has yet equalled his earlier attempt. 
He was the first to tell tales of the frontier, of the backwoods, 
and of the prairie. He stands forth even now the foremost rep- 
resentative in fiction of the United States as a whole, — for Haw- 
thorne, a more delicate artist in romance, was of his section a 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. (05 

compact, and his genius lacked fit nourishment when its tenta- 
cles did not clingf to the stony New England of his birth. Well 
might Bryant assert that the glory which Cooper "justly won 
was reflected on his country, of whose literary independence he 
■was the pioneer." 

"There is no life of a man faithfully recoided, " so Carlyle 
has declared, "but is a heroic poem of its sort, rhymed or un- 
rhymed." The life of Cooper has been faithfully recordel by 
Professor Lounsbury, in the best biography yet devoted to any 
American man of letters. Cooper was born in New Jersey in 
1789, juft after the United States had adopted the constitution 
which has given stability to our government. When he was 
only a year old be was brought to Cooperstown, where he was 
to die three score years later. His far-seeing and open-minded 
father had settled more acres than any other man in America; 
and forty thousand souls held under him, directly or indirectly, 
most of them along the shores ot the Susquehanna, the crooked 
river, "to which,'' as Cooper tells us, "the Atlantic herself had 
extended an arm in welcome." It was at Cooperstown that the 
future novelist passed his childhood, "with the vast forest 
around him," so Bryant has recorded, "stretching up the moun- 
tains that overlook the lake, and far beyond, in a region where 
the Indian yet roamed, and the white hunter, half Indian in his 
dress and mode of life, sought his game. — a region in which the 
bear and the wolf were yet hucted, and the oanther, more for- 
midable than either, lurked in the thickets, and tales of wander- 
ings in the wildernes;*, and encounters with these fierce animals, 
beguiled the length of the winter nights." 

In due season he was sent to school at Albany; and then he 
entered Yale, only to be expelled before he had completed his 
course. Thus it was that he lacked the chastening influenece of 
the prescribed programme of studies, narrow enough in those 
days and yet broadening to all who knew how to profit by it. 
His own college never made up to him for what may have been 
her mistake or his own: but a score of years later Columbia hon- 
ored herself by granting him the degree of master of arts. As 
a preparation for the navy, Cooper made a long voyage to Eu- 
rope before the mast; and on his return he was appointed a mid- 
shipman. He remained in the service only three years. He was 



106 THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 1907. 

on the Vesuvius for a season; he was one of a party that went 
to Oswego to build a brig on Lake Ontario, then girt in by the 
primeval forest; and he was, for a while, left in command of 
the gunboats on Lake Champlain; and all these posts gave him 
a knowledge of his native land and of its conditions which was 
to stand him in good stead later, when he turned novelist. 
Afterward he was ordered to the Wasp, where he served under 
the heroic Lawrence, — who was to die a few years later, crying 
"Don't give up the ship!" But there seemed then little likeli- 
hood of war; so Cooper resigned his commission, and mairied 
Miss de Lancey, with whom he was to live most happily for the 
rest of his life, and who was to survive him only a few months. 

His father and his wife's father were both well-to-do; and 
for nearly ten years Cooper was content to live the placid life of 
a country gentleman, sometimes at Cooperstown, and sometimes 
in Westchester, near New York. He reached the age of thirty, 
not only without having written anything, but even without 
any special interest in literature; and when at last he did take a 
first step into authorship, it was in the most casual fashion. 
Throwing down a contemporary British novel of slight value, 
he expressed the belief that he could write a better book him- 
self. Encouraged by his wife, he completed a story of British 
manners and customs, about which he knew little or nothing 
from personal observation. But so complete was our American 
subservience to the British branch of our literature that this did 
not seem strange then, even to Cooper, an American of the 
Americans. This firstnovel, "Precaution," was published with- 
out his name; it was even reprinted in England, where it was 
reviewed with no suspicion that it had not been written by an 
Englishman. However insignificant in itself, this first book 
revealed to its author that he could tell a story. 

It is a commonplace of criticism that novelists flower late. 
Fielding and Scott, Thackeray and Hawthorne, had spent at 
least the half of the allotted three score 'years and ten before 
the? blossomed forth as novelists, — as though to exemplify the 
Arab proverb that no man is called of God until he is forty. 
But Fielding and Scott, Thackeray and .Hawthorne, had* been 
writing abundantly] from their i'youth 'up, plays^'and poems, 
sketches and short stories, whereas Cooper had served no such 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. J07 

apprenticeship to literature. But when he bad once tasted ink, 
he enjojed it; and in the remaining half of his life he revealed 
the ample productivity of a rich and abundant genius. Toward 
the end of the next year, 1821, he published the "Spy," followed, 
swiftly by the "Pioneers," and by the "Pilot;" and by these three 
books his fame was firmly established, in his own country, 
in Great Britain, and all over Europe, where he was hailed as 
a worthy rival of Scott. In these three books he made good 
his triple claim to remembrance, as a teller of tales, as a creator 
of character and as a poet (in the larger sense of the word). 

The "Spy'' was followed in time by another tale of the Amer- 
ican revolution, "Lionel Lincoln," wherein, soBancroft has testi- 
fied, "he has described the Battle of Bunker Hill better than it 
is described in any other work." It was accompanied later by 
other historical novels, some of them dealing with themes in 
European history,the "Bravo," for one, and the "Headsman," for 
another, — good stories in their way, but without the solid sup- 
port which a novelist has when he de'ls with his own people 
and his own time. The "Pioneers" was made more important by 
the composition of four other "Leatherstocking Tales" complet- 
ing the interesting drama in five acts, which culminates at last 
in the simple hero's death, told with manly pathos. The "Pilot" 
had in its track the "Red Rover" and eight other talesof the sta; 
and it was also succeeded in time by a "History of the American 
Navy" and by a series of "Lives of Naval Officers," in which 
Cooper proved his loyalty to his first profession. 

Perhaps it is not strange that he who could describe fight- 
ing with contagious interest should not himself shrink from 
controversy. Cooper was large-hearted, but he was also hot- 
headed and thin-skinned. A high-minded man, beyond all 
question, he was high-tempered also, generally opinionated and 
occasionally irascible. Even in Cooperstown he became involved 
in a dispute which calls for no consideration now. In his 
travels in Europe he had been quick to repel ignorant aspersion 
against his native land; and on his return home he had not hes- 
itated to point out the failings and the faults of his fellow-citi* 
sens, not always with the suavity which persuades to a change 
of heart. Bitterly attacked in the newspapers, he defended 
himself with his pen and in the courts of law. That he was 



108 THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, J907. 

meanly assailed by mean men is shown by the fact that he was 
successful in the several libel suits he brought against his tra- 
ducers. But the echoes of these "old, unhappy far-off things 
and battles long ago" have died away now these many years; 
and they need not be recalled. Cooper was independent and 
uncompromising; "his character," so Bryant testified, "was like 
the bark of the cinnamon, a rough and astringent rind without, 
and an intense sweetness within." 

Although these needless disputes may have saddened the 
later years of his life, he was happy in his family and in his 
friends, whom he bound to him with hoops of steel. These 
friends, with Bryant and Irving at the head of them, were mak- 
ing ready for a public dinner to testify the high esteem in 
which they held him, when they heard that his health had begun 
to fail. He was then contemplating a sixth "Leatherstocking 
Tale;" but he did not live to start on his new story. And it 
was at Cooperstown that he died, in the fall of 1851, on the last 
day of his sixty-second year. 

Fame has its tide, its flood and its ebb, like the ocean; and 
the author who is lifted high by a wave of popularity is certain 
in time to sink into the trough of the sea, perhaps to be raised 
aloft again by a later billow. The fame of Cooper soared after 
his first successes, only to fall away sadly during the later con- 
troversies. It was proclaimed again by Bryant and Bancroft 
and Parkman in the stress of emotion evoked by his sudden 
death, to be obscured once more in the two score years that fol- 
lowed, as other literary fashions came into favor. Now, at last, 
in this new century, it has emerged once more, solidly estab- 
lished on his real merits and not likely again to be called in 
question. Time has made its unerring choice from out his many 
books, selecting those which are most representative of hi*: gen- 
ius at its finest. It is by its peaks that we measure the height 
of a mountain, and not by its foot-hills and its valleys. Irving 
had Cooper in mind when he remarked that "in life they judge 
a writer by his last production; after death by what he has done 
best." No author can go down to posterity with a baggage- 
wagon full of his complete works; he can descend that long 
trail laden only with what will go in the saddlebags. 

Cooper is a born story-teller; and the kind of story he excels 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. JO^ 

in is the tale of adventure, peopled, now and again, with vital 
and veracious characters, having a life of their own independent 
of the situations in which they may chance to be actors. Of 
this kind of story the Odyssey is the earliest example as it is the 
greatest. Professor Trent is only just when he insists that 
Cooper lifted "the story of adventure into the realms of poetry." 
It may be acknowledged at once that he is not a flawless artist 
never quitting his work till he has made it as perfect as he can; 
and his best books are not always kept up to their highest level. 
Even though he is denied the gift of verse he is essentially a 
poet; but he is ro Virgil, no Racine interested in his manner as 
much as in his matter and joying in his craftsmanship for its 
own sake. He had the largeness of affluent genius, and also 
the carelessness which often accompanies this, such as we may 
observe in Scott and even in Shakespeare, rich creators of char- 
acter in whose works there is much that we could desire to be 
different and not a little that we could wish away. 

As his devoted daughter admitted loyally, "He never was, 
in the sense of studied preparation, an artist in the composition 
of a work of ficton. He wrote, as it were, from the inspiration 
of the moment." But even in this improvisation his native 
gift of rarrative did not desert him. "It is easy to find fault 
with "The Last of the Mohicans," said Parkmac; "but it is far 
from easy to rival or eveu approach its excellence. The book 
has the genuine game flavor; it exhales the odors of the pine- 
woods and the freshness of the mountain wind." In this story, 
as in others, the author may be sluggish In starting, over-lei- 
surely in exposition, not always plausible in the mctives 
assigned fcr the entanglements in which his creatures are 
imme^hed; he may be inconsistent now and then; but these are 
minor defects, forgotten when the tale tightens to the tensity cf 
drama. Then the interest is beyond all question; and we can 
not choose but hear. We read on, not merely to learn what is 
to happen next, but to know more about the characters as thev 
reveal themselves under the stress of danger. We are not mere 
spectators looking on idlv; we are made to see the thing as it is; 
■we feel ourselves almost participants in the action; we are car- 
ried along by the sheer pow^r of the write-, — breathless, 
delighted, convinced. 



ISO THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, t907. 

There are two reasons why Cooper has come into his own 
later than was his right, and why full recognition of his genius 
has been delayed. The first is a consequence of the enduring 
vogue of realism, which has failed to jerceive that he was one 
of its precursors, and which has no relish for his more evident 
romanticism. Yet sharp-eyed cr:tics ought to have been able to 
see thot Cooper's detail d desc iptions of customs and of cos- 
tumes, when these were truly characteristic and needful to relate 
the character to the backgrouni, set a pattern for Balzac, the 
romanticist thus servin-^ as a stimulus to the realist. They 
migbt even have noted that Cooper is a romanticist who is often 
a realist, just as Balzac is a realist who is often a romanticist. 
In all later fiction there are no more sternly characters than 
Natty Burappo anu Long Tom Coffin; and though the method 
of their presentation is not so modern, they can withstand com- 
pari .on with Huckleberry Finn and Silas Lapham, and with 
Colonel Newcome and old Goriot. 

A second reason for the tardiness of Cooper's recognition 
may be found in the fact that the vicissitudes of literary repula- 
tio . seem to be more or lessd pendent on the historians of liter- 
ature, and, as it happens. Cooper's deficiences as a writer are of 
a kind obnoxious tc the ordinary literary critics, who are rarely 
broad minded or keen-sighted enough to perceive beneath Coop- 
er't more obviou^ defects tbe larger merits, which are clear to 
the plain people, insensitive to the lesser blemisaes that send 
shivers down the spine of the dilettante. These critics arc 
uimoved by Cooper's fundamental force, which the plain people 
feel fully, while they are acutely sensitive to his lapses from lit- 
erary conventions and traditions. Cooper came to story-telling 
late, with little experience in writing. He was not at all book- 
ish; he was not a man of the library, but a man of the open 
air, — of the ocean and the forest. In a sense, he was not a man 
of letters at all; he was interested not so much in literature aa 
in life itself. And we must recall the pitiful fact also that there 
are always fastidious criticasters who think that whatever wins 
wide popularity must be poor stuff, ignorant that rearly all the 
really great writers have achieved indisputable popularity while 
they were alive to enjoy it. 

Cooper's lack of early training can not be gainsaid; and 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. J t i 

therefore his style appeals but little to tho?e who cherish a rare 
word for its owj sake and who delight in verbal marquetry. 
Even if he is essentially a poet, he is no sonneteer, polisaing 
hi3 lines until he can see his own image in them. He is careless 
of the rules of rhetoric, — sometimes unforgivably careless. 
Evei in grammar he was no purist, no precisian; and his use of 
wo ds is not always defensible, evtn if it is an overstatement of 
the case to charge bim with "linguistic astigmatism." But if 
thtre is clumsv writing in his pages, this is never the result of 
the failure of any attempt at fine writing. Awkward he mav 
be at times, but he is always sincere and direct; he is always 
unpretentious and simple. He has something to say, and he 
says it, so as to stamp ' 'on the mind of the reader the impression 
he desired to convey." He achieves the primary object of all 
good writing, in that he makes himself clearly understood, even 
if he sometims fails to attain the secondary purpose of giving 
added pleasure by the mere expression. In describing nature 
and in depicting character, his style is nervous aid ucerring; 
and it can rise on occasion into geruine eloquence. When Bry- 
ant first read the "Pioneers,"he declared that here was "the poet 
of rural life in this country;" and Paikman praised the vigor 
and the fidelity of Cooper's descriptions of scenery, asserting 
that they who can not feel the eflSciency of his "strong pictur 
ing have neither heart nor mind for the grandeur of the outer 
world." 

After admitting that Cooper is not beyond reproach for an 
occasional laxity in his style, for an occasional stiffness in his 
dialogue, and for an occasional prolixity in bis narrative, it may 
be as well to add that sometimes he fatigues himself and his 
readers in the search for conic relief. Even Scott is not infre- 
quently tedious in his minor characters, meant to be laughed 
at; an:' as Cooper lacked Sc tt's real richness of humor, he i j 
mere often tiresome and at greater length. There are passages 
of admirab'e humor scattered here and there in Cooper's pages, 
seemingly unconsious, most of th^m; and there are quaint char, 
acters sketched with a delightful appreciation of their absurd- 
ities. But it must be confessed that when he sets out to be 
funny by main strength, he is plainly joking with difficulty. It 
is as though he thrust his hand into the grabbag of our varieT 



112 THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, J907. 

gated humanity, willing to take whatever his fingers might 
find, whether it was truly a prize, like his great creations, or 
only a wooden doll dressed like a figure of fun and unfit to be 
thrust to the front of the stage. 

Perhaps this may account in some measure for the flatness 
of a few of his female characters. He can draw women sympa- 
thetically, although some cf his heroines are a little colorless. 
The wife of Ishmael Bush, the squatter, mother of seven stal- 
wart sons and sister of a murderous rascal, is an unforgettable 
portrait, solidly painted by a master; and Dew-of-June, the 
girl wife of the treacherous Arrowhead,, a primitive type but 
eternally feminine, is depicted with equal art. Judith and 
Hetty, the supposed daughters of the buccaneer, are real and 
vivid and womanly, both oT them. And it is remembered also 
that women must ever play a minor part in the tale of adven- 
ture, since the bolder experiences in life are not ht for gentle 
and clinging heroines; and more often than not Cooper presents 
them with a kind of chivalric aloofness. 

These adverse criticisms need not detain us. There is no 
denying that there are weak spots in Cooper's works; and there 
is no advantage in seeking to disguise this or to gloss it over. 
Cooper is what he is, — even if he is not what he is not. He is 
a teller of tales, creator of character, a poet; and in his chosen 
form he has left more than one masterpiece. Very few master- 
pieces are absolutely free from defect; but detects, however obvi- 
ous and however numerous, have never prevented the ultimate 
appreciation of a masterpiece. 

That Cooper was able to leave more than one masterpiece be- 
hind him was due mainly, of course, to his own genius, but it 
was the consequence also of a singular piece of luck. It was his 
good fort ine to take up novel-writing at the precise moment in 
the history of the art of fiction when one of his predecessors had 
just provided him with the exact model he needed, and when 
another had jusi revealed the richness of the material that lay 
ready to his land The year 1820, in which his imitation of a 
British novel had proved to him that he could at least tell a 
story, even though his subject might be alien to all his interests, 
was also the year in which Scott sent forth"Ivanhoe"and in which 
Irving completed the "Sketcb Book," containing "Kip van Win- 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 113 

kle" and the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Scott supplied 
Cooper with the mould into which he could pour whatever he 
might have to express; and Irving disclosed the unsuspected 
possibilities of romance in American life, which had hitherto 
been deemed too barren and too bare for the creative artist to at- 
tempt. Irving's delightful tales may have drawn Cooper's 
attention to the kind of matter he could deal with most satisfac- 
torily, while Scott's historical novel certainly indicated the 
manner in which he might handle it most advantageously. 

It is characteristic of genius to be uninventive of formulas 
and to take over unhesitatingly the patterns which chance to be 
popular. Sophocles followed closely in the footsteps of i^Jschy- 
lus, and Shakespeare found his profit at first in accepting the 
frameworks which had been put together by Marlowe and by 
Kyd, That author is lucky who finds a formula ready to his 
hand and fit for the work he wants to do, as that author is 
unfortunate who has no inspiring model. Perhaps we have 
here a reason why one of Cooper's forerunners, Charles Brock- 
den Brown, a man of undeniable endowment, was able to leave 
so little that to-day bides in our memories. He had before him 
only the unsatisfactory fictions of Mrs. Radcliffe and of Godwin; 
and it is an interesting speculation to inquire whether he might 
not have rivaled Cooper if he had lived a score of years later, 
and had written only after Scott had devised the historical 
novel. 

Scott had begun by editing the ballads of the Border and 
by writing ballads of his own. Then he rhymed the longer 
Lady of the Lake and Marmion, retaining the tone and color of 
the ballad. When he was "beaten out of poetry" by Byron, he 
began to do in prose what he had been doing in verse, availing 
himself fully of the larger liberty that prose allows for descrip- 
tion and for character delineation. This accounts for the ro- 
mantic element in his novels; and the realistic element is the 
result of his desire to do for the Scots peasant what Miss Edge- 
wDrth had done for the Irish. The first eight of the prose nar 
ratives we now know as the Waverley Novels dealt with adven- 
ture in his own country, and they were then generally called 
the "Scottish Novels." But Scott wisely feared that "Scotland 
forever' might weary the English public sooner or later; so he 



1 14 THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, t907. 

crossed the border and employed in a tale of England the methcl 
he had invented for tales of Scotland. "Ivanhoe"' is, in fact, the 
first English historical novel, with romantic episodes in the 
foreground and with realistic characters in the background. 
"Ivanhoe" appeared in 1820; and in 1821 Scott was encouraged by 
its success to cross the channel and to use the same framework 
jor a tale of France, "Quentin Durward." 

It is easy now to see how much Scott lost when he left his na* 
live land, which he knew intimately, for other countries with 
which he had only a literary acquaintance. His humbler Scots 
characters, whom he loved so heartily and whom he drew witk 
such fidelity, are rooted in truth; and they abide to-day as the 
bulwarks of his fame. But the valiant young fellow wbc tilts 
in tourneys and fights a long fight and bears a charmed life, this 
bravura hero is now out of fashion along with the rest of the 
frippery of romanticism. His deeds of dering-do may still please 
the boy in us — the boy eternal in all of us at some stage of our 
mental developement; but he fails to satisfy grown men wh© 
can still relish the permanently convincing figures of Scott's 
realism — Jeanie Deans, for example and Caleb Balderstone. 
Tales cf adventure come and go, one after another; they please 
the fancy of the moment only to sink swiftly into oblivion; but 
character honestly presented mubt survive as long as man is in- 
terested in his fellow-creatures. 

There is no denying, however, that the formula of the his- 
torical novel as Scott declared it, with its core of romanticism 
and its casing of realism, was pleasing to the many-headed and 
many-minded public; and there is no cause for wonder that it 
was seized upon at once by other novelists in other countries. 
It was the formula which exactly fitted the kindred genius of 
Cooper, who also had the native gift of story-telling and the 
power of presenting simple and primitive character. Both the 
romantic and the realistic elements of Scott's framework ap- 
pealed strongly to Cooper, who had the same rapidity of action, 
the same inventiveness of situation, the same command of pa- 
thos, even though his human sympathy might be less broad and 
his humor far less abundant. But Cooper never imitated Scott 
slavishly. He found in Scott's stories formula fit for his use, 
and he availed ^himself ot it, modifying it freely. He did in 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 115 

America very much what Hugo and Dumas were to do in France, 
and Manzoni in Italy; he borrowed the loom set up by the Scotch 
novelist, only to weave on it a web of his own coloring. 

Scott IS generally considered as a historical novelist; but 
Cooper's historical novels are not his chief title to fame. In- 
deed, the best of them are scarcely to be classed at all as histor- 
ical novels in the narrower sense, since they do not seek to evoke 
the manners and the man of long ago. The "Spy' and the 
"Pilot" deal with the American Revolution; and this was hardly 
more remote from Cooper than were the Napoleonic wars from 
Thackeray when he wrote "Vanity Fair", which we accept now 
rather as a picture of society contemporary with the author, 
than as a historical novel, True romance does not require the 
remoteness of the past; and it is not the real artist, but the 
magic-lantern operator, who has to have the room darkened 
before he can display his pictures from life. The revolutionary 
conflict had come to a happy conclusion less than two score 
years before Cooper chose to put it into fiction, and he had 
many friends who were survivors of the strife. That war was 
nearer to him than the Civil War is to us to-day. There was no 
strain of the imagination needful before he could put himself 
back in the times that tried men's souls; and he was not com- 
pelled to step off his own shadow, as Scott vainly strove to do 
when he composed "Ivanhoe" and "yuentin Durward". 

The "Pilot" is like the "Spy" in that it is a novel of the 
American revolution, although its scenes are not on the land, 
but on the ocean mainly, and also in that the nameless hero is a 
seemingly enigmatic yet fundamentally simple character, like 
the darkly glimpsed figure of Harvey Birch. Although the 
"Pilot" is the result of a desire to deal more effectively with life 
on the blue water than had been accomplished in the "Pirate", 
BO story of Cooper's more clearly reveals his real independence 
of Scott. The manner may be more or less similar; but the 
matter is wholly unlike, and so is the point of view. Scott is a 
landsman, a dweller in court-rooms and libraries; Cooper is a 
sailor, a man of the ocean, with a tang of the salt air in him. 
When he sailed before the mast in the merchant marine, he had 
bunked with the able seamen in the forecastle, and he knew them 
through and through. When he received his commission in the 



U6 THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, J907. 

navy, he gained an equal intimacy with the officers of the ward- 
room. When he set out to tell the first sea-tale ever attempted, 
he was writing out of the fullness of knowledge, and he was ac- 
complishing a labor of love. 

It is not easy for us now to perceive that the "Pilot" was a 
most daring experiment in fiction. No one had ever ventured 
to lay a story boldly on the sea and to seek for interest in the 
handling of a ship. Now and again, it is true, an episode or 
two of a novel had taken place on the ocean; and storms at sea 
had tempted the pens of the poets. But the novelists and the 
poets were landsmen, all of them; and they could not choose but 
take the landsman's attitude of dread rather than the sailor's 
attitude of delight. They had never felt the joy of the seaman, 
when the wind blows high and the giant surges sweep ahead, 
and there is no land within a hundred leagues. Cooper was a 
novelist and a poet and also a ssailor-man; he knew ships because 
he had lived in them and loved them; he knew seamen because 
he had lived with them and appreciated their special qualities. 

There is a storm in the "Odyssey"; bit Homer was a lands- 
man who looked at the sea with the eyes ol a landsman, even if be 
may have made a few coasting trips between the mainland and 
the isles of Greece. There is a storm in the "i^neid" also, but 
Vergil achieved only a studio-piece, a cento from the Greek 
poets. Robinson Crusoe, mariner of York, was wrecked by a 
gale and cast away; but although Defoe had crossed the chan- 
nel and had perhaps even braved the Bay of Biscay, he dealt 
with the storm cnly as a device to get his hero alone on an 
island. Smollett had been a surgeon's aiate in the navy, and 
had sailed the Western Ocean; but his eye was open only for the 
strange humors of seafaring men, and there is no love for the 
sea in any of his comic chronicles, no understanding o' its 
might and its mystery. Bcrnardin de Saint-Pierre had gone on 
long voyages in distant waters, and he was able to call up a tor- 
nado to make an end of "Paul and Virginia"- but he was only 
an artist in emotional description; he did not know the sea and 
love it as a sailor knows it and loves it. Scott in the "Pirate" 
had proved again the landsman's incapacity to get full val* e out 
of a sea-theme; and it was this storv of Scott's which mcved 
Cooper to undertake the "Pilot". 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 117 

Here at last was the real thing, a story of the ocean, of ves- 
sels manoeuvring, of sailors as they are, — the work of a sailor 
who was also a teller of tales, a creator of character, a poet. 
Here was the formula to be handed down to those who might 
come after, to Melville and to Marryat, — good story-tellers, both 
of them, but lacking Cooper's double experience as a sailor 
before the mast in a merchant vessel, and as an oBBcer on the 
quarterdeck of a mar-of-war. The very novelty of the "Pilot," 
its originality, seemed to the author's friends dangerous, and 
they discouraged him. Perhaps this is the reason why the sto- 
ry is a little slow in getting under way. and why the author 
sometimes tacks more than once before coming to close quarters. 
There are a few scenes on land, far less interesting than those 
at sea. But how sympathetically the character of Long Tom 
Coffin is presented! How vie^orous and how humorous is the 
pinning of the British officer to the mast by Long Tom's har- 
poon! How superb is the account of the ship working off-shore 
in a gale! It is no wonder that the French naval historian, 
Admiral Jurien de la Graviere, declared that "he could never read 
it without his pulse thrilling again with the joy of seamanship." 

Heartened by the cordial acceptance of this first sea-tale, 
Cooper soon spun another yarn, the "Red Rover," the action of 
which was laid wholly on the ocean, — after the opening chap- 
ters. In none of his novels does Cooper better display bis mas- 
tery of narrative, and his power of sustaining interest. There- 
after he could not long be kept away from salt-water; he wrote 
sea-tale after sea-tale, until there were half a score ot them, set- 
ting forth the most varied aspects of the unstable element. In 
"Wing-and-Wing" he skirted the lovely shores of the Mediter- 
ranean; and in the "Two Admirals" he set in array a goodly 
fleet on the Atlantic. Although these ten sea-tales are not all 
oi equal excellence, they are all proofs of his love for life afloat, 
of his insight into the shifting moods of nature, and of his un- 
derstanding of the hardy men who go down to the sea in ships. 
They all reveal his ability make the average reader perceive and 
enjoy technical operations. They are all more or less touched 
■with the poetry of the sea, and instinct with the gliding grace 
of the vessels themselves. Cooper's "ships live", so Captain 
Mahan has informed us; * 'they are handled as ships then were 



118 THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 1907. 

and act as ships still would act under the circumstances". And 
the historian ot sea-power holds that the water is "a noble field 
for the story-teller, for of all inanimate objects, a sailing ship in 
her vivid movement most nearly simulates life." 

"Cooper of the wood and wave, ''as Stevenson affectionally 
termed him. is not more at home on the ocean than he is in the 
forest. Fine as are the sea-tales, they are surpassed in power 
and in popularity by the five stories in which the career of 
Leatherstocking- is traced from youth to old age. In the char- 
acter typified in Leatherstocking, Lowell found "the protagonist 
of our New World epic, a figure as poetic as that of Achilles, as 
ideally representative as that of Don Quixote, as romantic in 
his relation to our homespun and plbeian myths as Arthur in his 
to his mailed and plumed cycle of chivalry". And Thackeray 
declared that he liked Scott's, manly and unassuming heroes, 
but he avowed that he thought Cooper's were quite their equals 
and that "perhaps Leatherstocking is better than any one in 
Scott's lot. La Longue Carabine is one of the great prize-men 
of fiction. He ranks with your Uncle Toby, Sir Roger de Cov- 
erley. Falstaff — heroic figures all, American or British; and the 
artist has deserved well of his country who devised him." Per- 
haps there is no better proof of Cooper's genuine power than that 
he can insist on Leatherstocking's goodness, — a dangerous gift 
for a novelist to bestow on a man, — and that he can show us 
Leatherstocking declining the advances of a handsome wo- 
man, — a dangerous position for a novelist to put a man in,— 
without any reader ever having felt inclined to think Leather- 
stocking a prig. We believe in his simple-minded goodness; 
and he keeps our sympathy in his rejection of Judith as in Ma- 
bel's rejection of him. 

Cooper was shrewd in his judgment of his own works; he 
said himself that "if anything from the pen of the writer of 
these romances is at all to outlive himself, it is, unquestionably, 
the series of the "Leatherstocking Tales." For the deserved pop- 
ularity of this series, abiding now nearly three score years since 
the author's death, there are many reasons besides the noble 
simplicity and the sturdy veracity of the central character. 
There are other figures as fresh and as real. There is Hurry 
Harry; there is Ishmael Bush; both of them necessary types of 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 119 

men bred on the border. There are Chingachgook and Uncas 
and Hardheart, good men and true. There is all the glamour 
of frontier life, now faded forever. There is the underlying 
poetry of the unbroken forest and of the sweeping prairie, of the 
broad lakes, and of the rapid streams. There are linked adven- 
tures of breathless interest, studded with moments of poignant 
emotion, — the death-grip of the wounded Indian over the falls, 
in the "Last of the Mohicans," the implacable execution of the 
traitor in the "Prairie," and many another in the other tales, 
scarcely less tense with iragedy. There is the rich gilt of nar- 
rative; there are vigor and accuracy of description. There is 
unfailing fertility of invention; and there is also the larger 
interpreting imagination. There are pictures of resourcefulness 
in the presence of danger, and of courage in the face of death. 
There is unstrained pathos. And behind all these things, there 
is the author himself, delighting in his work and sustaining his 
story by his manly wisdom and his elemental force. 

There would be no need to say more about this series, if it 
had not been attacked for one of its most salient characteristics, 
— for its presentation of the red men with whom the white men 
of the forest and the prairie were ever at war. Scorn has been 
heaped high on Cooper's Indians; they have been denounced as 
wooden images, fit only to stand outside cigar stores; and they 
have been described as belonging to "an extinct tribe that never 
existed." The first of these criticisms may be dismissed as fool- 
ish; whether true or false, Chiugachgook and Uncas and Hard- 
heart are alive. The color on their cheeks is not redder than 
the blood in their veins. Just as West, when he first beheld the 
Apollo Belvidere, was made to think of a Mohawk brave, so 
Longfellow, at a performance of Corneiile's "Cid" by the Come- 
iie-Francaise, was reminded of Cooper's Indians "by its rude 
fower, and a certain force and roughness." The second charge, 
however, that they are not taken from life, calls for considera» 
iion. Parkman, for example (to be cited always with the ut- 
aost respect), held Cooper's Indians to be false to the fact as he 
had seen it himself. But the aborigines have been studied more 
sympathetically in the sixty years that have elapsed since Park- 
man tramped the Oregon trail; and our riper knowledge has 



J20 THURSDAY. AUGUST 8. 1907. 

revealed a poetry in the red man and a picturesqueness very like 
those with which Cooper endowed him. 

It is often assumed that we are indebted to Cooper tor the 
idealized "noble savage," whom Rousseau evolved from his in- 
ner consciousness, and who is as remote as possible from the real 
man at any stage of his social evolution. But this noble savage 
is not to be discovered anywhere in Cooper's stories. As Mr. 
Brownell has recently pointed out, Cooper does not at all ideal- 
ize the red man; "in general, he endow? the Indian with traits 
which would be approved even by the ranchman, the rn<=:tler, or 
the army ofiScer. " And his Indians are the result of early inti- 
macy and of conscientious study. His daughter has told us 
how he followed the frequent Indian delegations from town to 
town, observing them care'ully, conversing with them freely, 
and impressed "with the vein of poetry and of laconic eloquence 
marking their brief speeches." 

If there is any lack of faithfulness in Cooper's presentation 
of the Indian character, it is due tc the fact that he was a ro- 
mancer, and therefore an optimist, bent on making the best of 
things. He told the truth as he saw it and nothing but the 
truth; but he did not always tell the whole truth. The Indian 
was rising from savagery into barbarism, with all that this 
implies; and Cooper f uts before us the Indian's courage and his 
fortitude, leaving more or less in the shad w the Indian's feroc- 
ity and his cruelty, i hat this was Cooper's intent is plain from 
a passage in the preface to the "Leatherstocking Tales, " where- 
in he declares that "it is the privilege of all writers of fiction, 
mere particularly when their works aspire to the elevation of 
romances, to present the beau ideal of their characters to the 
reader. This it is which constitutes poetry, and to suppose that 
the red man is to oe represented only in the squalid misery or in 
the degraded state that certainly more or less belongs to his 
condition, is, we apprehend, taking a very narrow view of an 
autlior's privileges." Here again Cooper was akin to Scott, who 
chose to dwell only on the bright side of chivalry and to picture 
the merry England of Richard Lionheart as a pleasanter period 
to live in than it could have been in reality. Cooper's red men 
are probably closer to the actual tacts than Scott's black knights 
and white ladies. And when all is said, Chingachgook and 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. ilt 

Uncas and Hardheart. even if not completely truthful, jus- 
tify themselves; they linger long in the memory; they stand 
forth boldly, for their author has breathed into them the breath 
of life. 

Parkman might find fault with the validity of Cooper's 
Indians' but he had been taken captive by their vitality. There 
was a time when the historian was "so identified with the nov- 
elist's red heroes that he dreamed of them". Just as it was the 
reading of Scott's romances which stirred Thierry to write the 
history of the Norman Conquest, so it was the reading of Coop- 
er's romances which started Parkman on his life-long task, the 
history of the protracted struggle between France and England 
here in America. Probably it was Cooper also, quite as much 
as Parkman, who moved another American historian to narrate 
the successive stages of the "Winning of the West;" and Mr. 
Roosevelt has been glad alwavs to testify to the stern reality of 
Cooper's steadfast borderers. 

This reveals to us that, underlying the "Leatheistocking 
Tales" and lending significance to them, is the fact that they set 
forth imaginary episodes in a real struggle, — in that long and 
inevitable conflict between two opposing civilizations, which 
looms larger than any mere war,and which has true epic grandeur 
in the clash of contending racial ideals. This is what lends to the 
•'Leatherstocking Tales" their largeness; and this is what gives 
them their major meaning for us. They help to explain how it 
was that these United States came to be what they are. 

Cooper has told us in the introduction to the "Spy" that, 
after he had published his empty imitation of a British novel, it 
became a matter of reproach among his friends that "he, an 
American in heart as in birth," should have depicted "a state 
of society so diflferent from that to which he belonged." This 
reproach it was which moved him to undertake the "Spy", in 
which "he chose patriotism for his theme". And patriotism is 
the theme of all his greater books. 

Cooper was intensely American in his feeling, and yet 
hfoadly cosmopolitan in his outlook on the world. Not for 
Bothing had he been an officer in the American navy and also a 
long sojourner in Europe. He had a noble detachment from 
all that was petty and temporary. In his novels he is curiously 



122 THURSDAY, AUGUST , J907. 

fair to all manner of foreigners, possessing apparently the sub- 
tle sympathy which gives understanding. And here he stands 
in striking contrast with only too many of his countrymen four 
score years ago, who were at one and the same time provincial 
in their boastfulness and colonial in their subservient deference 
to the opinion of the mother-country. Cooper was stanchly 
patriotic; "with him", so Professor Lounsbury tells us, "love of 
country was not a sentiment, it was a passion". Perhaps be- 
cause of his unbounded faith in the future of his native land, be 
was not blind to her present faults and while he "defended bis 
country from detractors abroad, he sought to save her from flat- 
terers at home", — to borrow Bryant's apt phrase. Lowell was 
to perform a similar service half a century later and i: isa grati- 
fying proof of our growth in independence, that Lowell aroused 
scarcely a tithe of the vindictive animosity which vented itself 
on Cooper, and which not only assailed the man, but also depre- 
ciated the author. 

The elder Dana dwelt upon Cooper's "self-reliance and civil 
courage, which would with equal freedom speak out in the face 
of the people, whether they were friendly or adverse''. Civic 
courage is a virtue none too common, even nowadays; and Cooper 
possessed it in a high degree. It needs to be noted also that 
Cooper's opinions upon public matters were not casual or '"reakish ; 
they were founded on principle. He had given careful consider- 
ation to the affairs of state and he had a political philosophy of 
his own, more solidly buttressed than we can discover in the 
equipment of any other writer of romance of his century, 
whether American or European. Recall the thinness of Dick- 
ens's political theories, for example, or of Hawthorne's. Even 
Hugo's are found on analysis tc be vague and fantastic. "Coop- 
ers politics, as Mr. Brownell has reminc'ed us. "are rational, 
discriminating, and suggesive. He knew men as Lincoln knew 
them — which is to say very differently from Dumas and Steven- 
son.'' There is no demand on any of us that we shall accept 
Cooper's political theories, or reduce them to a system. It is 
enough that he had a body of doctrine, complete and clear, 
which gives a certain solicity to his fiction, lacking in that of 
all the others who have undertaken the tale of adventure. 

It is the triple duty of the novelist and of the dramatist t* 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL, 123 

make us see, to make us feel, and to make us think. Cooper 
succeeded in making his readers think, even though they might 
resent it, because he had done his own thinking in advance. 
And his thinking had not been done in a vacuum; he was not 
only shrewd and sagacious, he had also an immense variety of 
information, not merely upon the ocean and the forest, but upon 
subjects as remote as horticulture and agriculture and stock- 
raising. His friends were "struck with the inexhaustible vivac- 
ity of his conversation and the minuteness of his knowledge in 
everything which depended upon acuteness of observation and 
exactness of recollection." 

When all is said, Cooper stands forth a large man, in him- 
self, in his work, and in the range of his influence. If we may 
judge an author by the number of those he has stimulated, 
Cooper must take high rank. He has stirred a host of other 
writers, often men who pursued wholly different artistic ideals. 
Redrew from Balzac "roars of pleasure and admiration and 
Dnmas avowedly imitated him in the 'Mohicans of Paris'. 
Mr. Kipling once remarked to me, after a rereading of Cooper, 
that he had come across scene after scene which he knew already 
in the narratives of later novelists, and that a host of later writ- 
ers had been going to Cooper's works, as to a storehouse of effec- 
tive situations where they could help themselves, so fertile 
in invention was the earlier American author. Kven Thackeray 
did not disdain to borrow from him the hint of one of his noblest 
chapters; and Poe may have taken over the suggestion of the 
method of his marvelously acute M. Dupin from the skill with 
which Cooper's redskins followed a trail blind to eyes less acute 
than theirs. Better than any other American author, save Poe, 
so Professor Trent has asserted. Cooper, "stands the test of cos- 
mopolitan fame"; and his share in the swift spreading of the 
romantic movement throughout Europe is almost, if not quite, 
eqMal to the share of Scott and of Byron. 

A poet, a teller of tales which moved many others to imita- 
tion and from which many others might borrow, he was above 
all else a creator of characters, which could not be taken from 
him. It is by the characters he brings into being that a novel- 
ist survives; and it is by this test that he must abide. And cer- 
tain of the wisest critics of the nineteenth century have testified 



124 THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, J907. 

to Cooper's power of giving- life to creatures that the world will 
not willingly let die. Lowell made sure that Natty Bumppo 

"Won't 20 to oblivion quicker 
Than Adams the parson and Primrose the vicar." 

Sainte-Beuve declared that Cooper possessed that ' 'creative 
faculty which brings into the world new characters, and by vir- 
tue of which Rabelais produced Panurge, Le Sage Gil- 
Bias, and Richardson Pamela. There can be no higher 
praise than this. Cooper deserved it; and by so deserving it, as 
Thackeray said, he deserved well of his country. 

Hon. John Worthington introducing Mr. Clinton ScoUard. 
said: 

In every period of history the people when celebrating, 
grand events, have called to their aid the services of the poet. 
His inspired thought and fitting words, crystalized in rhymic 
verse have ever served to perpetuate the deeds and honors of 
men. James Fenimore Cooper wrote occasional verse, but he 
never claimed to be a poet. Yet in the larger sense he was a 
poet. For he was a maker, a creator, a seer. It is fitting that 
to this graphic poet of primeval forest and lake, some tribute 
should here be paid by one who has gained modern renown 
through a grace and a delicacy of lyric power which Cooper 
would have been the first to admit e. I have the honor of intro- 
ducing the poet of the day, Clinton Scollard: Mr. Scollard then 
gave the following poem. 



'CHILDREN OF ROMANCE/' 



In .Memory of James Fenimore Cooper. 



Where round Hellenic headlands the blue seas 

Sweep with melodious beat, Romance was born, 

"Within her eyes the untrammeled ecstacies 
And ardors of the morn. 

Her impulses are glad as those that run 

At nesting time from wing to shimmering wing, 
That mount from root to bough-top when the sun 

Loosens the sap in spring. 

And since her raciant birth-hour long ago 

She hath bequeathed her ichor and her zest — 

Kindling her virile children with the glow 
From her impassioned breast. 

She was the soul of chivalry when night — 

Those purblind ages, sanguine and obscure — 

Oppressed mankind, hers was the torch to light 
Trouvere and Troubadour. 

She was to Marlowe an inspiring ray; 

No vital charm from Shakespeare she concealed; 
She walked with Sidney through that last red day 

On Zutphen's fatal field. 

She was a voice heroic, eloquent, 

With many a virginal and varied chord, 

The gamut of a mighty instrument. 
To him of Abbotsford. 

And unto him we hail and hold our own, 
Our pioneer, for whom green laurels be, 

She spake in accents of primeval tone 
From forest and from sea. 

Ope but the record of his storied page 

And learn how loyally he worshipped herl 



126 THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, J907 

Through him we gain a precious heritage — 
A new interpreter. 

Soon will the red man rest beneath the mould, 
Naught but a name, a vision-vanished race; 

And yet through Cooper's genius will he hold 
An unforgotten place. 

But yesterday at twilight-time I strayed, 

And heard the wood-thrush chant its evening mass 
From out the interbraiding boughs that shade 

The shores of Glimmer-Glass. 

Cleaving the distance on its vibrant course, 
Silvered the soft insistence of a bell, 

And o'er the Susquehannas tranquil course 
The velvet shadows fell. 

They gather where the great Romancer slept — 
Whose fancy many a form with life imbued — 

In that Gods Acre where he long has kept 

Earth's final quietude. [ 

The hour was frought with magic, tor it brought 
Forth from the neighboring isleways of the pine 

Those whom his wrapt imagination wrought. 
Line upon silent line. 

First the immortal woodsman, gun on arm, 
Deerslayer — Pathfinder here to the last, 

The spell of whose incomparable charm 
O'er all our hearts is cast. 

And those high-natured warriors of the wild, 
Father and son, of the undaunted look — 

Beloved Uncas, knightly forest child, 
And noble Chingachgook. 

And swarthy seamen, savoring of the surge. 
Rovers upon the unconquerable main, 

Triumphant, although winds and waters merge, 
O'er peril and o'er pain. 

And shadowy others — bravo, patriot, maid — 

From many a land, our own and alien climes; 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 127 

Dim wraiths! — and yet the figment of a shade 
The master's touch sublimes. 

Such was the pageant of my vesper dream 

While fluctuant starlight round m: fire flies threw, 

And heavenly starlight gilded with its gleam 
Otsego's breadth of blue. 

Ah, he may sleep, the magician whose pen 

Transfigured out cf naught such pulsing lives, 

Yet midst the ceaseless moil of mortal men 
His spirit still survives. 

Here where he dwelt and strove in human guise 

Around whose name are quenchless lustres shed, 

What lips shall dare, in unbelieving wise, 
Deciare that he is dead? 

In yonder sacred garth his dust may rest, 
But that so potent essence which was he 

Strides with the sunlight up the mountain crest 
More animate than we. 

The lake he loved, the forest paths his feet 

In other days were wont to fare along, 
Are lush with summer opulence, are sweet 

With sunshine and with song. 

The air is tinct with attar faint and fine 

That morning from the dewy loam distills; 

Through it, with what transcendent beauty shine 
His wooded home-land hills! 

Here let us leave him, one with mother-earth 
That yielded him so pure and rich a store, 

One with her mood of primal grief and mirth 
Till tine shall be no more! 

X his closed the Literary Excercises. 

The display of Paine's fire-works in the evening was much 
the finest ever seen in Cooperstown. They were exhibited on a 
float at the foot of Pioneer street and witnessed by an immense 
crowd both on shore and lake. Two distinguished men of the 
lionr, one of the past and one of the present, divided the honors 



125 THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, J907. 

of picturesque illumination — both Fenimore Cooper and Bishop 
Potter were easily recognisable and cheered by the spectators. 
The cataract of fire was a wonderful exhibit. 



Centennial Exercises 



Friday and Saturday, August 
9th and 10th. 



Friday was characterized by the arrival, encampment, 
parade and guard mount of the Second Battalion of the 10th 
Regiment and Company G of Oneonta. The Oneonta company 
arrived at 10 o'clock and returned that night. The Albany 
companies, four in number, arrived about 11 o'clock in command 
of Major Chas. Staats. The presence of the military companies 
added much to the Centennial and their appearance on parade 
was witnessed with great interest. Saturday the Battalion gave 
a drill and inspection on Main street. Saturday evening the 
ofiBcers were entertained at dinner at Five-Mile Point by mem- 
bers ot the local committee. The Battalion left for home Sun- 
day afternoon about 4 o'clock. 

Saturday the military, with ball games, band concerts and 
moving pictures finished the entertainment. The Marion Fancy 
Military Co., a feature not advertised, was an added attraction 
Saturday afternoon and evening when they gave two exhibitions 
on the street. Their rapid marching and handling of their 
rifles was marvelous and their agility in scaling a 12foot wall 
a surprise. 




The Military Parade. 




Main Street From the Kast. 



The Loan Exhibits. 



The chairman of the Loan Exhibits report is, in part, xi 
follows : 

The generous management of the Young Men's Christian 
Association placed almost the entire second floor of their beaiF 
tiful and commodious building at the disposal of the loan exhibit 
committee. While the major part of the articles showu 
belonged to the permanent exhibit yet very many rare and his- 
toric antiques were loaned for the week only. The book in 
which the loans were permanently recorded and classified shows 
that 211 exhibits were placed irrespective of the oil paintings 
and medallions. Each was placed in one of eight classes aac 
placarded with the ofiScial blank of the committee. 

Upon entering the building the visitors were asked to regis- 
ter. But the crush was too great at times to permit of any- 
thing like complete returns. For instance on one day 1,50C> 
were registered before 5 o'clock. However, a careful estimate 
based on actual registrations places the number visiting the 
exhibits at 5,000 for the entire week. Some registered from as 
far west as Oregon, others from as far south as Havana. 

In the first hall were glass cases containing rare books 
printed in Cooperstown a hundred years ago, historical doc- 
uments and land indentures dating back to 1793, and exquisite 
needle work with interesting associations. Here the visitor 
paused to view a dinner-party invitation issued by George 
Washington to Judge William Cooper, the inkwell, pen-holder, 
and signature of J. Fenimore Cooper, and the hand-made satic 
wedding slippers of Mrs. Fenimore Cooper. On a long table were 
placed curious household utensils, — mortar and pestle, wrought 
iron toaster, and irons, fireplace bellows, foot warmer, snuff-box, 
brass candlestick with tray and snuffers, candle molds, and the 
ingenious betty lamp. Here were also quaint and rare dishes, 
the process of whose making in some cases now lost, — copper 
and silver lustre, black basalt, old blue china, lowestoft, pewer, 
britannia, and silver. Around the windows hung brass warm- 



mo THE LOAN EXHIBITS, 

rag pans, silver headed canes, Mexican rifles, Revolutionary 
flintlock?^, and sidearms, most of them marked by historic con- 
nections. On the side walls hung fine old garments worn by 
promincni local personages at high receptions and balls. Here 
was the quiet Quaker garb worn by Judge Nelson's wife, here a 
beautiful flowered silk ball dress worn by Mrs. John Russell, 
md here a magenta silk worn by Mrs. J. Fenimore Cooper. 
Ihese dresses were of superior material and workmanship, well 
preserved in color and fold. 

The second hall was arranged as an Art gallery. The 
exhibit included paintings of Cooperstown's most famous char- 
acters of the past, — Col. Charles Stewart, Commissary General 
an Washington's staff, Mr. and Mrs. James Averell, Mr. Wm. 
H. Averell, George Pomeroy, Theodore Keese, Judge and Mrs. 
Samuel Nelson, Mr. and Mrs. John H. Prentiss, Mr. and Mrs. 
Robert Campbell, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Wortbiugton, George 
Clarke, James Averell, Mr. and Mrs. John M. Bowers, Mrs. 
Elizabeth Cooper seated in Otsego Hall, and J. Fenimore Cooper 
as he appeared at 35 and again at 60. Some of these were 
T),ainted by S. F. B. Morse afterwards more famous as an inventor. 
Oarmen Silva, Queen of Roumania, sent her photograph and 
Aatograph, a most beautiful tribute to Cooper. Among the 
landscapes were several fine old paintings of Otsego Lake 
loaned by Theodore Turner, Mrs. Campbell Smith, and Mrs. H. 
C. Potter. In the center of the hall were glass cases containing 
medallions and daguerreotypes. Among the Miniatures were 
those of the mother and grandmother of Mr. J. R. Worthington, 
Col. Stewart, Mrs. Martha Wilson, Mr. John M. Bowers, Mrs. 
George Clarke, Mrs. Duncan C. Pell, Miss Georgina Pell, Mr. 
Edward Clark, Mr. George Pomeroy, Mrs. Theodore Keese, Mrs. 
I»yman Foot. 

There was also a very interesting pencil drawing of the 
children of James Fenimore Cooper taken when the youngest 
child, Paul, was about seven years old. 

The third hall contained by far the most valuable collection. 
Many of the articles treasured here can not be duplicated in the 
museums of the great universities. Particularly noteworthy is 
the collection of Indian relics. But inasmuch as this exhibit 
will remain intact it need not be further mentioned in this brief 
sketch. 



Tributes to Cooper and Coop- 
erstown. Written by Well- 
known Writers and 
Scholars. 



For Publication on the Occasion of Cooperstown*s 
Centennial Celebration, 



"The Centennial Celebration of the town of the founder of 
strictly American romance will be a veritably notable event." 
EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN. 



The Spirit of the Place. 



There is a little lake among the hills, 

A silver, shining lake, called Glimmerglass, 
Pervaded by a spirit kind, which fills 

The sunshine and the floating clouds that mass 
Themselves above it, with a quietness 

That falls like music on a tired heart, 
And leaves upon the mind sweet thoughts which bless 

The solitude of summer. Then depart 
With me along the fragrant wooded shore 

And lend yourself unto this spirit fair. 
The poet who lived here, is now no more, 

But you will find his pictures painted there 
Across the hills and as the twilight falls, 

Will hear the echo of a voice that calls. 

MARY BORDEN. 



J32 TRIBUTES TO COOPER AND COOPERSTOWN. 
Letter from Rev. Dr. Morgan Dix. 



Mount Kisco, N. Y., July 25th, 1907. 
John Worthington, Esq., 

Chairman Literary Committee. 
My Dear Sir : 

I am much indebted to you for your letter inviting 
some words expressive of my interest in the Cooperstown Centen- 
nial Celebration. I can make no contribution which would add 
to the value of those which will be written or spoken on that 
occasion; for surely nothing will be lacking which heart could 
speak or hand indite, on the subject now engaging your atten- 
tion. The name and memory of James Fenimore Cooper; how 
precious to our people! And where in any place, or when any 
time, did lustrous jewel shine in more beautiful setting? The 
fame of the great novelist is immortal; we read his works over 
and over again, with new delight; while, in associating that 
name with the peaceful village, the lovley lake, the mountains, 
and the scenery of the region, we find complete correspondeace 
between the man and his home; as if nature had done her best 
to provide a shrine for the wonderful genius, the brilliant writer, 
the pure, high-toned religious soul. 

I wish it were possible for me to be with you on the 4th of 
August, and during the ensuing week, and observe the order of 
the events of those days. As that is a pleasure which I am 
compelled to forego, may these few words be accepted in lieu of 
a personal appearance at your celebration. I remain, 

Very truly yours, 

MORGAN DIX. 



From Edward Everett Hale. 



Boston, Mass., June 24, 1907. 
Dear Sir: 

I thank you for your letter. I wish I could be with you 
at your celebration. 

We owe Cooper a great deal more than the youngsters in 





, ' 




1 


^^^l&^^B^^H 


vfQIuV ij 


IP 


I^^^^^HHRSMpi^^HHj^^^ 


^^H^^RLlVrr' ^ 


n 


1 


^■SbL ^^HMpi 




1 


B'% '^^^^^ 




' I^^J^SHhI^^ ftHfi 


1 


Wr^W?^ 


■.■'•s^3 


1 








^nwrofv^fW^ 


. j^^H^ra«|gB|nitei 


y 


' 






VaH 


1 


■i^i.,sMmK^ 


Wtkrii'^t--^' X,Kf '-• 


T^-^nri"tm^^fiioV- 


m^^^ 


Iirn ¥ffffi-i[? 




^1 



Float No. 1. Before the "Wliite >1an Came. 




Float No.'.i. George Washington in front of his Tent. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL J33 

Literary Life know. I am told that to this hour, you will find 
Cooper's novels in French bookstores, where you can find no 
other American book. 

It is easy to laugh at some of the imitations of Sir Walter 
Scott in the earlier books. But those who laugh are perhaps 
these who do not know how Scott was worshipped then among' 
all intelligent people who could read English. 

I had the honor to write the introduction to Appleton's edi- 
tion of "The Pioneers". I was glad to hear that the sales of 
Cooper's historical novels are as large now as they ever were. 

You need not say at the celebration, that within an hour of 
my first arrival in Cooperstown in 1844, I went to the bookstore 
to buy "The Pioneers", and that the dealer had never heard of 
it! This would not happen there in 1907. 

Truly your greatly obliged, 

EDWARD EVERETT HALE- 
To John Worthington, Esq., 

Chairman, etc. 



Mr. Alden's Tribute. 



Editorial Rooms, Harper's Magazine, New York. 
Dear Mr. Worthington, 

Thirty-six years ago Miss Constance Fen- 
imore Woolson contributed to Harper's Magazine an article, 
entitled, "The Haunted Lake", a beautiful memorial to her 
grand-uncle, James Fenimore Cooper. The article contained a 
poem from her pen, two stanzas of which are especially appro* 
priate to the occasion celebrated, during the coming week. 
"Thrice blest art thou in every curling wavelet, 
In every floating water-lily sweet. 
From the old Lion at thy northern boundary, 
To fair Mount Vision sleeping at thy feet. 
"A master's hand painted all thy beauties, 
A master's hand hath peopled all thy shores 
With wraiths of mighty hunters and fair maidens. 
Haunting thy forest glades forever more." 
It is with Lake Otsego that we associate our first great nov- 



J34 TRIBUTES TO COOPER AND COQPERSTOWN. 

elist, in his childhood and in his raaturit}-. But we do not for- 
get his sea-faring years from which came the inspiration of such 
romances as "Water-Witch", "Wing and Wing", nor the years 
■when in New York City he was the associate of Irving and Bry- 
ant and Halleck; nor the period of his sojourn in Europe where 
he and Irving were then the only representatives of American 
Literature. 

Cooper had no predecessor and no successor in his own field of 
fiction; he stood alone. He did not write fiction in the modern 
sense, but romances: Yet he was a creator, and his "Natty" 
■will stand forever as the most original of pioneer characters. 
No writer has been so successful in the portrayal of American 
frontier life. Whatever his defects in the light of advanced 
criticism, he^holds a lasting place in American Literature. 

H. M. ALDEN. 



Ik Marvel. 



Edgewood, New Haven, 23rd July, 1907. 
My Dear Mr. Worthington, 

I have delayed replying to your 
esteemed favor of the 3rd inst.— hoping that some cherry gap 
in the chronic invalidism which 85 fastens upon one — would 
enable me to send you somewhat in the vein j-ou suggest; but 
no such gap comes! 

I regret this the more, since recalling the fact that my first 
printed effusion (in college days) was a sophomoric appreciation 
of J. F. Cooper. I further recalled visiting Cooperstown some- 
where between 1838 and 1845 for a sight of Otsego Hall, and 
•was also, a most interested attendant upon that great memorial 
meeting (in honor of J. F. Cooper) when Daniel Webster and 
Washington Irving were present upon the platform and contrib- 
uted in their ways to make the occasion memorable. 

I am glad Mr. Lounsbury is to be present with you; no more 
just expositor of the virtues and notable qualities of J. F. Cooper — 
our great colonial novelist — could be found. 

Hoping that your purpose will meet with the success it 
deserves, I remain, 

Yours very respectfully, 

DONALD G. MITCHELL. 





'■^'■t 






'*.**' 


fe*-. ■■ 


'.' i" ^a.V 






*#|. 






wu 


'.4,, %■ .^"'^ ^-^ 


[ IS 


1^ 1 ^" 


'./ IB 


.'irm t 


i.\ J,« ♦' -^•Sl^~~~~^' 


MT "^"l. i '^ 


'^^^tka^J^'^^^m^ m 


1M 


fef^ 


•>Tj«*»'''«*"i^ ^hO 


f,-^ 


w^t 


w% 


Hi 







7 V^ .i?'5 


s 


^ 


^^^^'~" " '•• ,-T--,^SBP^BBES 


y-iin W 


bLs- 



Float >o. 3. <».\ Cart. 



^^ 


'. ' ' ■•• •* 


1 






,* 






'^i'^Se 




if 




p^- 


,_ . — — ^,. % ^^/ fr 


/<«ifSl 


^^^^^mLt- ■^^IJ^ 




^» -Ill ' - ■ - » 




■,^ Le3'her3loch,n^\, flj^^V 




^^ "" 



Float No. 4. L,eatlierstocking. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL J'S 

John Burroughs. 



West Park, N. Y., April 26, 1907. 

Mj dear Mr. Worthington, 

Pardon me for saying that I am sur- 
prised that anyone should think I am the man to write a poem 
for any such occasion as you mention. My muse went silent 
several years ago, but in her most vociferous period she would 
have grown dumb at your suggestion. Seriously I wish I could 
do what you ask, but I can not. I have many fond raemoriea of 
Cooperstown. I went to the old Seminary there fifty-one years 
ago this April and its beautiful scenery has floated through ng? 
dreams ever since. 

Let some of our younger bards plume themselves on tire 
occasion of your celebration — Mr. Gilder, Henry VanDyke, Mr, 
Moody or Florence Wilkinson. 

Thanking you for the honor you would confer upon me,3 
I am, 

Very sincerely yours, 

JOHN BURROUGHS. 



James Fenimore Cooper from "American Prose/ 



(N. Y. Macmillan Co. 1898.) 

"Cooper » » » inaugurated three especial classes of fic- 
tion — the novel of the American Revolution, the Indian nov^l 
and the sea novel; and in each case he produced a class of works 
which * * * have secured a permanence and a width of 
range unequaled in the English language, save by Scott alone 
* * * "If he did not create permanent characters in Harves? 
Birch, the Spy; Leatherstocking, the Woodsman; Long Totn 
Coffin, the Sailor; Chingachgook, the Indian; then there is n© 
such thing as literary creation." 

From the author, 
THOMAS WENT WORTH HIGGINSON, 
Cambridge, Mass., 1907, 



36 TRIBUTES TO COOPERSTOWN AND COOPER. 
Admiral Dewey's Tribute. 



Navy Department, 

Office of 

The Admiral of the Navy, 

Washington, June 18, 1907. 
My dear sir : 

Success to the Centennial Celebration of the village 
of Cooperstown, — a village which in itself is now and will al- 
ways be a most beautiful memorial to the great American novel- 
wt^ James Fenimore Cooper. 

There is much about Cooper which gives to the Navy a 
jpecial interest in him; his early service as an officer nearly a 
century ago; his excellent history of the Navy which he fear- 
lessly wrote as he believed it to be; his "Lives of Distinguished 
American Naval Officers", and his many wonderful stories per- 
iaining to the sea. 

None appreciate more than the naval officers of the present 
day how much influence the writings of Cooper have had upon 
American young men; and as hi? stories never lose their inter- 
8Bt, many future generations will yet receive benefit from them. 

GEORGE DEWEY. 



"Carmen Sylva" and Cooper. 



The Queen of a country in Eastern Europe seems so remote 
m every way from our Otsego hills and their literary traditions 
that it is interesting to knew of the admiration for Fenimore 
Cooper felt by such a sovereign. Queen Elisabeth of Roumania 
is famous not only as a wise and good queen, but also under her 
pen name "Carmen Sylva", as a gifted writer. In a letter 
recently written by her are the words, "Oh! haven't I read and 
enjoyed Fenimore Cooper! I should think so!'' 

This suggested the idea that Queen Elisabeth might be 
willing to send some brief message of appreciation of James 
Fenimore Cooper as a greeting to the people of Cooperstown on 
ihe occasion of the village centennial. An invitation to do so 




Float No. 5. Historic Stage Coach, Cooperstown to Catskills. 




Float N'o. 6. Modem Coaching:, F. Ambrose Clark's Four-in-Hand. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL 137 

was accordingly sent, to which she q^raciously replied. Her 
answer took a most pleasing form. It consisted of a large pho- 
tograph of herself, below which the Queen has written a mes- 
sage with her own hand. The portrait shows a beautitul 
woman with kind and attractive expression. Her hair is snow 
white, her dress white lace, about her neck is a rope of pearls; 
a narrow band of black velvet is worn as a head dress, from 
which a white veil falls down her back. This picture will b9 
placed in the Cooperstown Museum. In her message, which 
follows, it will be noticed that the word 'poet' is used in the 
sense of 'author'. "Our hearts are lull of love for the great 
poet, our childhood's dearest friend. We can never thank him 
enough for all the joy he gave usl" 

Elisabeth, "Carmen Sylva". 
Bucarest, June, 1907. 

The portrait of the Queen of Roumania was accompanied 
by a letter from Baroness von Kranichfeld, Her Majesty's Secre- 
tary, and is as follows. 

Bucarest, Roumania, June 18th, 1907. 

Bv Her Majesty's Orders I beg to acknowledge the receipt 
of your interesting letter for which my Royal Mistress thanks 
you. 

Enclosed you will find a few words from Carmen Svlva's 
fertile pen whicn the great souled writer kindly deigns to send 
so that you may gladden the hearts of the good folk of Coopers- 
town on the first of August, when they celebrate the Centenary 
of their great man, Feniraore Cooper; a man whose works like 
thoss of Britain's Daniel Defoe, will ever be the joy of youth in 
all lands. 

In Germany, Cooper is particularly honored, for I do not 
suppose there is any school boy whose library does not contain 
his esciiing books. And not only is the school boy charmed by 
their wonders of courage, boldness, and the fine traits of noble 
character therein contained, but their elders still live under the 
spell of their magic. I myself can remember the enjoyment my 
sainted Husband and myself had one winter in reperusing Feni- 
more's works, snowed in at our Alpine home; and how they 
mads us feel young again by the remembrance of the joy they 
had given us in youth. Pure and good is all that they con- 



ns TRIBUTES TO COOPER AND COOPERSTOWN. 

tain, fit food for the young, and if they recount scenes of cruelty 
and treachery', they are of a race that knew no better; and vet 
was so noble and exalted in its calmer moments that I think no 
eye can retain its tears when we think of that race as disappear- 
ing from the globe, being obliged to give up their vast lands 
so glorious in their freedom, to intruders in whose characters we 
find no nobler parts. Excuse me for my words. I know that 
nations must rise and fall in the scale of destiny, that races 
must disappear to give place to others, and as with nations, so 
with families; but I think there is no more melancholy picture 
than that of the last of a grand race, be it white, red, black or 
yellow, or of a family whose last member is carried to the grave. 
And when nations and races and families have been noble and 
grand in their actions, have performed deeds af prowess and of 
virtue that the gods might envy, no man should be more 
respected by us who enjoy what they have lost than he who, 
like Fenimore Cooper, records those deeds of valour or generos- 
ity or patriotism and prevents the soul of the race from siuking 
as its body does into oblivion. Fenimore Cooper, then, shall 
live to all time, continuing to be the joy of youth in all quarters 
of the world, sowing seeds of valour in many a young heart, 
stirring up the spirits of both bov and girl to perform in after 
life deeds as courageous and splendid as his immortal heroes 
performed. 

Three loud cheers to the memory of Fenimore Cooper!!! 

And permitting a digression, it may interest you to hzarn 
that the first of August will be a great day here in Roumania, 
at least in Bucarest, for it will celebrate the first anniversary of 
the institution for the Blind of our Sovereign Queen EHsavata, 
in whose youthful mind doubtless Fenimore sowed some seeds of 
truth, for if it be correct that no person and no book ever goes 
through our mind without influencing them, certainly Cooper 
would be no exception. 



So please think of us on the first of August as we will 
think of you, and on that day memorable to us both let us praise 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL J39 

tbe Lord for his o;ood gifts in whatever forte they come. 
I remain 

Yours faithfully, 

Baroness von Kranichfeld' 
Secretary to Her Majesty 
Elisabeth, Queen of Roumania." 
JOHN PEARSON. 



William Cooper. 



The bloodiest wave of border warfare broke on the western 
frontier of New York during the Revolution. The settlers were 
the victims of raids of Tories and Indians as well as of the more 
regular expeditions from Canada. It is not strange that no 
important settlements were undertaken — it is perhaps remark- 
able that many of the old ones were not abandoned during this 
period. 

When peace was restored and order once more reigned along 
the frontier, the long withheld speculation in land broke out 
violently and settlers were encouraged to buy farms and build 
homes in the wilderness so long made unsafe by the Indian, the 
Tory and the border raider. This outbreak of activity offered 
to men of enterprise with the love of adventure and speculation 
in their veins an opportunity to acquire wealth and often polit- 
ical importance. 

It was then that William Cooper, the founder of Coopers- 
town appeared on the scenes where the rest of his life was to be 
spent. He was born in Byberr ?, Pennsylvania, on December 2, 
1754, and was married to Elizabeth Fenimore at Burlington, N. 
J., on December 12, 1775. He was living at Burlington when 
he made the settlement at Cooperstown ard in 1789 brought his 
family to the latter place. This settlement was the first impor- 
tant one undertaken after the war of the Revolution. It was 
known by the name of Cooperstown as early as 1786, but until 
1791, when it became the county town, the settlement was fre- 
quently called the "Foot of the lake." 

On an old indenture now in the Museum at Cooperstown 
appears what purports to be a map of the "Improvements" then 
existing on the site of the present village about 1774. The 



140 TRIBUTES TO COOPER AND COOPERSTOWN. 

"Improvements" shown by the map were few and were probably 
even less important in fact. Whatever they amounted to they 
"were the first on Otsego Lake and had practically disappeared 
when in 1785 Judge Cooper visited the site of Cooperstown, nor 
were there any evidences of the temporary occupation of Hart- 
wick which is said to have taken place when he thought that 
his patent reached the south end of Otsego Lake. 

In one of a series of letters written by Cooper to William 
Sampson in 1807 and published in Dublin in 1810, he describes 
his first trip to Otsego as follows: "In 1785 I visited the rough 
and hilly country of Otsego, where there existed not an inhabi- 
tant, nor tiny trace of a road; I was aloce, three hundred miles 
from home, without bread, meat, or food of any kind; fire and 
fishing tackle were my only means of subsistence I caught 
trout in the brook ard roasted them on the ashes. My horse fed 
on the grass that grew by the edge of the waters. I laid me 
down to sleep in my watch coat, nothing but the melancholy 
Wilderness around me. In this way I explored the country, 
formed my plans of future ^-ettlsment, and meditated upon the 
spot where a place of trade or a village should afterwards be 
established." He further tells Sampson that in May, 1786, he 
opened the sale of forty thousand acres of land which was all 
taken up in sixteen days. This land included the present site 
of Cooperstown and the purchasers at this sale were the sattlers 
of the village and of this part of Otsego County. 

These letters contain a graphic description of the struggles 
of the early settlers. Famine nearly destroyed the settlement in 
178'>, and only the appearance in the Susquehanna Kiver of large 
quantities of herring saved it by supplying food for the winter, 
William Cooper lived among the settlers and made common 
cause with them in these early struggles. He spent his private 
means for the common good, and eventually saw the settlement 
grow into a thriving frontier town. He gathered the settlers 
together and led them in the necessary work of bridge and road 
building. He opened a store to supply them with necessaries; 
gave them credit and gathered together and sold for them the 
first cummercial products of the settlement — wood ashes and 
maple sugar 

Among the stories of these early days which have survived, 
and which are characteristic of the times andthe man, is one of 




Float No. ~. Family Coach of Ex-Gov. John A. Dix. 




Float No. 8. Neptune— Old Hand Fire Engine. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL Hi 

Judge Cooper's having offered a lot of one hundred and fifty 
acres of land to any man on the patent who could throw him. 
Tradition says that he was finally thrown and the lot conveyed 
to his conqueror. The writer some years ago had a curious con- 
firmation of this story. He was introduced by the late E. D. 
Palmer of Albany to a gentleman who in the course of conversa- 
tion said that his grandfather had thrown Judge Cooper in a 
wrestling match under the following circumstances: After a 
bad season the tenants of a township owned by the Judge found 
themselves unable to pay their interest. The matter was dis- 
cussed at a public meeting, and one of their number selected to 
go to Cooperstown and arrange for delay in payment. As the 
story runs, the ambassador called on Judge Cooper and laid be- 
fore him the object of his call. The Judge proposed a wrestling 
match with the understanding that if he were thrown he would 
give receipts in full for all interest, while if he won it was to be 
paid. The challenge was accepted, the Judge thrown and the 
champion returned home triumphant bearing the receipts. 
This may be the same story in a different form, for such con- 
tests have been frequent. They must have been an expensive 
amusement unless the landlord was invincible. 

However, a lot in those days could have had no very grea 
value, for once when Jugde Cooper's eldest son was showing 
the sights of New York to his youngest brother he took him to 
a pasty shop and after watching the boy eat pasty after pasty 
said to him : "Jim, eat all you want but remember that each 
one costs the old man a lot." 

"William Cooper was an active federalist, and became the 
first judge of Otsego County and served two terms in Congress. 
The duties of a successful politician in the last years of the 
eighteenth century were certainly varied. In a letter written to 
Cooper by Philip Schuyler in 1791 the letter says : "I believe 
fasling and prayer to be good, but if you had only fasted and 
prayed I am sure we should not have had seven hundred votes 
from your county. Report says that you were very civil to the 
young and handsome of the sex, that you flattered the old and 
ugly, and even embraced the toothless and decrepid, in order to 
obtain votes. When will you write a treatise on electioneering? 
Whenever you do, afford only a few copies to your friends." 
Among his papers are still to be found affidavits dated in 1799 



142 TRIBUTES TO COOPER AND COOPERSTOWN. 

telling how he successfull}' defended himself in a fight with a 
rival candidate. The customs and manners of the locality do 
not seem to have improved during the intervening years. 

Many are the stories of the hospitality dispensed at Coopers- 
town which have survived and which with the receipted bills for 
tuns of Maderia speak eloquently of the gayer side of frontier 
liff. The village had a reputation for hospitality and social 
advantages. It was visited by many of the well-known men of 
the times. Tallyrand stayed at the home of Judge Cooper and 
wrote verses to one of his daughters, and any foreigners tempora- 
rily exiled made their home there. 

The settlement at Cooperstown once fairly on its feet Judge 
Cooper turned to other localities and many settlements owe their 
beginnings to him. A work which he first undertook as a 
means of livelihood he carried on largely from love ci seeing 
settlements develope under his supervision. At the time of his 
death he had amassed a large fortune. The speculation in wild 
lands continued for year^, with extraordinary activity. As an 
example of the character of the transactions in which Judge 
Cooper was engaged, a reference to his books shows that in 
February, 1803, he bDught the town of De Kalb in St. Lawrence 
County, about sixty-four thousand acres, for sixty-two thousand 
seven hundred and twenty dollars. In three months he had sold 
56,886 acres for $112,226.00. In another case he paid ten dollars 
an acre for land in the North Woods which is hardly worth that 
price today. 

In the midst of such activities William Cooper died in De- 
cember, 1809, as the result of a blow on the head struck by an 
opponent at a political meeting in Albany. As they were leav- 
ing the meeting place, alter a heated political discussion, he was 
struck with a walking stick by a man following him. 

Our judgment of William Cooper's character and achieve- 
ments must be drawn from the letters he has left, from contem- 
porarv documents and from his handiwork in the prosperous vil- 
lages that have grown from his settlements, as well as from the 
places where settlements once existed — now only a memory about 
which his name clings. 

Of the latler there are several. Most of these failures were 
due to changed methods of transportation. In his time road- 
ways and natural waterways were the arteries of commerce; the 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL 143 

railway not dreamed of and the canal merely a vision. Judge 
Cooper's views on the canal written in 1807 are of suflQcient 
interest to justify their quotation in full as follows: 

"The trade of this vast country must be divided between 
Montreal and New York, and the half of it thus lost to the 
United States, unless an inland commurication can be formed 
from the Lake Erie to the Hudson. This project, worthy of 
a nation's enterprise, has been for some time meditated by indi- 
viduals. Of its practicability there can be no doubt whilst the 
world has as yet produced no work so noble; nor has the uni- 
verse auch another situation to improve. Its obvious utility will 
hereafter challenge more attention; men of great minds will 
turn their thoughts and devote their energies to its accomplish- 
ment, and I doubt not that it will one day be achieved. 

The surface of the lake Erie is elevated about 280 feet above 
the Hudson at Albany. A canal large enough for sloops SO 
tons burden, will not only bring the produce of these great and 
rich tracts of land in the state of New York to its capital, but 
will secure all the trade and productions of the vast country 
■which surrounds the lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior. 
Were this once effected, a sloop might then perform an inland 
voyage of seventeen hundred miles! 

The trade of Lake Erie already supports twenty-three ships, 
brigs, scows and sloops, and Ontario twelve. The United 
States have millions of acres in the Michigan country of which 
the produce by this operation would be transportable to a mar- 
ket. 

How, you ask, and by what funds is this great work to be 
accomplished? "Without presuming that my opinion should be 
the guide in so important a coccern, it is enough if I can point 
out one way which it may be possible, and I think the mode I 
am about to propose not only possible, but very practicable. The 
State of New York may cede the track of this canal to the 
United States, and the United States may then grant a charter 
to a company, with strong rights and immunities, and the fullest 
security the general laws will admit of against the evils of 
freight wars or civil changes; in short whatever would encour- 
age the European capitalist to adventure in this magnificent 
enterprise. Let the United States take shares to the amount of 
ten millions of dollars, which will serve as an encouragement 



tU TRIBUTES TO COOPER AND COOPERSTOWN. 

and security to the foreign capitalists, and be a safeguard against 
the effects of those fluctuations in councils and public opinions, 
to which the affairs ot men are everywhere liable. 

The banks of this canal would become a carriage road, and 
one of the most beautiful in the universe. That most attractive 
and gratifying object of human curiosity, the falls of Niagara, 
would of itself creat^ a thoroughfare, and the product of the tolls 
on the turnpikes and canal gates would raise a revenue suflS- 
cient in a very short time, to requite the undertakers. No stran- 
ger but would make this tour his object, and no traveler of taste 
would leave it uncelebrated. But, as this speculation lies in the 
province of fancy and may be treated as a vision, I leave it to its 
fate and shall proceed in more direct answer to your queries 
touching roads likely to be made or encouraged by the state; 
think they will be the following : 

First, from Catskill on the Hudson westward to Lake Erie, 
through the counties of Delaware, Broome, Steuben and Genesee. 

Second, from Albany to Niagara. 

Third, from Albany through the counties of Saratoga, and 
the uncultivated parts of the state, to the county of St. Law- 
rence, at or near the long Soo in the St. Lawrence. 

Fourth, from Plattsburg on Lake Champlain to Rome or 
Utica on the Mohawk river. 

These ought to be made under the auspices of government, 
and with these remarks I close my answers and observations on 
your third head of inquiries." 

None ot Judge Cooper's contemporaries engaged in similar 
work, made so deep an impression on his times. From his let- 
ters the following quotations are taken as perhaps better than 
an^'thing that can be written today showing his character 
and the result of his labors: "You have now before you, as 
well as I can explain, the advantages and the difiSculties which 
belong to an enterprise in new lands. But let me be clearly 
understood in this, that no man who does not possess a steady 
mind, a sober judgment, fortitude, perseverance, and above 
all, common sense, can expect to reap the reward which to him 
who possesses those qualifications is almost certain. * # * ♦ 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 145 

I began with the disadvantages of a small capital, and the 
e»ciimbrance of a large family, and yet I have already settled 
niore acres than any man in America. There are forty thnusand 
sonls now holding, directly or indirectly, under me, and I trust 
that no one amongst so many can justly impute to me any act 
resembling oppression. I am now descending into the vale of 
life, and I must acknowledge that I look back with self compla- 
cency upon what I have done, and am proud of having been an 
instrument in reclaiming such large and fruitful tracts from the 
waste of the creation. And I question whether that sensation 
is not now a recompense more gr3teful to me than all the other 
profits I have reaped. Your good sense and knowledge will 
excuse this seeming- boast; if it be vain (we must all have our 
vanities), let it at least serve to show that industry has its re- 
ward, and age its pleasures, and be an encouragement to others 
to persevere and prosper." 

With Judge Cooper's personal appearance his descendants 
are familiar through the existence of three portraits, one by 
Gilbert Stuart, one by an unknown artist and one by Copley, 
His kindly gray eye, robust figure and firm expression bear out 
tke story of his life as outlined here. 

In writing from Canajoharie to his wife about 1834 his 
yeungest son describes him as follows: — "I have been up the 
rayine to the old Frey house. It looks as it used to in many 
respects, and in many it is changed for the worse. The mills 
still stand before the door, the house is, if anything, as comfor- 
table and far finer than formerly, but there is a distillery added, 
with a hundred or two as fat hogs as one could wish to see. I 
enjoyed this walk exceedingly. It recalled my noble looking, 
warm hearted, witty father, with his deep laugh, sweet voice 
and fine rich eye, as he used to lighten the way, with bis anec- 
dotes and fun. Old Frey, with his little black peepers, pipe, 
hearty laugh, broken English and warm welcome, was in the 
background. I went to the very spot, where one of the old 
man's slaves amused Sam and myself with the imitation of a 
tttrkey, some eight and thirty years since; an imitation that no 
artist has ever yet been able to supplant in my memory." The 



J46 THE LOAN EXHIBITS. 

Frej referred to was Hendrick Frey, a prominent figure in the 
Mohawk Valley a century ago. 

JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. 
Dated, Albany, July, 1907. 



The Location of Cooperstown. 



In all commemorations, in order to fully appreciate the pur- 
pose, it is alwajs necessary to carry the mind back to the period 
«t which the event to be signalized, occurred; even to go a little 
further back to understand why the event did occur. Let ui 
then recall the times in which William Cooper lived, to fully 
comprehend why Cooper came to Otsego f^ake to found the town 
which bears his name. 

During the war of the Revolution and for some years 
immediately following, the men of America found themselvet 
too exhausted to at once take up the advance in subduing the 
wilderness that lay at their western gate. It is true that dur- 
ing the war military expeditions had explored regions that, up 
to that time, had been little known, but the power to advance 
had been checked by the poverty of the people, growing out of 
the tremendous effort that had been made to secure liberty and 
independence. 

During the quarter of a century preceding the war, the 
English Commissioner, Sir William Johnston, had made trea- 
ties with the tribes of the Iroquois or Six Nations by which the 
boundary for settlement by the whites in the Province of New 
York, had been fixed by a line drawn from Oswego on Lake 
Ontario, to the headwaters of the Unadilla River and along that 
river to its confluence with the Susquehanna, the present west- 
ern boundary ot Otsego county. Most of the land as far west 
as ihat boundary, was granted by Royal Letters Patent to vari- 
ous individuals, but little of it had been actually taken up and 
occupied west of Schoharie. Beginnings had been made, and 
we have records of settlements at Lindsay's Bush (now Cherry 
Valley), Springfield, Fort Plain, Fort Schuyler and Fort Stan- 
wix. The above named forts were originally military posts 
established by the Albany government to secure the western 
^order against invasion by the French from Canada by way of 




Float No. 9. Veterans of E,. C. Turner Post, G. A. B. 




Float No. 10. Sons of Veterans of J. F. Clark Camp, S. of V. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL, 147 

the Great Lakes, but since the conquest of_^Canada by the Eng- 
lish, there was no longer any fear from that source. The fer- 
tility of this region was known, and each recurring year 
brought a greater number of hardy settlers, principally from 
the New England Provinces. The war put a stop to this move- 
ment, but in due course of time it naturally began again and 
was even stimulated by the cheap sale of sequestered landa 
(confiscated) by the state from the former owners who had re- 
mained true to their allegiance to the Crown and had opposed 
the Revolution. Now while this movement by agriculturists 
was in progress, men in trade were seeking new locations to 
establish trade centers. 

Otsego county was nearly entirely patented out before the 
Revolution. Of the original patentees but few retained their 
holdings for more than a generation. In fact, most of these 
patents of land were land speculations. But there still were 
a few notable exceptions. My own family was among the origi- 
nal patentees and held lands in the Cherry Valley, Oothout and 
Bradt^patents down to the death of my own father. The 
Clarkes, unlike William Cooper, never sold land until they were 
obliged to. It was notorious that my family was Tory through- 
out the Revolution, and it could hardly be otherwise inasmuch 
as it had furnished several officers of note who served George 
II and George III, but it so happened that at the time of the 
Revolution the then owners of the estate were minors and sa 
were exempt from the operation of the Confiscation Acts. Ulti* 
mately, my grandather forsook his estate at Hyde in Cheshire, 
England, and settled as an Amerian citizen on Otsego Lake, at- 
tracted to it by its beauty and because of his belief in the future 
developement of Cooperstown, though at the time he owned 
many thousands of acres in other and older parts of the state. 
Hyde Hall, on Hyde Bay at the northeast end of Otsego Lake, 
was built in 1815 and was designed to be the home of a family 
having the land accruing instinct. Like this and even older is 
the home of the Bowers family. The manor house of the 
Bowers patent was built before the 19th century, and had 15,- 
000 acres of land around it, bordering on the lake and the river. 

Mill sites and shipping points were the first locations sought. 
It is hard for this generation to imagine the conditions at that 



14S TRIBUTES TO COOPER AND COOPERSTOWN. 

time when water power was practically the only ally to man's 
and beast's physical effort. But great state problems were 
already on foot to establish water ways by which the opening 
trade of a vast continent could be fostered. The harnessing of 
the Susquehanna River and its tributaries was one of the first 
of these problems. We are apt to think of George Washington 
only as a great soldier and a great statesman, but in fact civil 
engineering was his first profession, and we kcow that he, ac- 
companied by Lafayette, soon after the close of the Revolution, 
took a trip of inspection and survey to mark the points of this 
water system aad to acquaint himself, and the others associated 
with him, with the means by which the future developement of 
this region should be carried out. During this trip Wash- 
ington came to Cooperstown. It was evident to him, as it was 
later to William Cooper and others that tbe site where the Sus- 
quehanna River emerges from Otsego Lake was the natural 
Iccation for a large and thriving trade center. Here was to be 
a town at the bead of navigation of the Susquehanna River 
controlling a widespread area of splendid and fertile country 
well watered and well wooded. One can easily imagine the 
dream of the founder of this town. First, in the early stage an 
almost inexhaustable supply of the best lumber to befouni, 
white pine, hemlock and white and red oak. The lumber to be 
sawed and shipped and the bark to use in tanning the hides of 
the animals which would find natural pasture just as fast as the 
land could be cleared. Here was a land where every hardy 
grain could be raised for the mill to grind on every stream in 
every valley, to find its way to a great emporium at sea level by 
the waters of the Susquehanna. Soon these mills would have 
other duties to perform tor tbe wool and flax that the country 
could produce would soon have to be woven by this same water 
power. In short, while the whole region around was to be 
cleared and settled. Cooperstown was to become the centre to 
which acd from which all trade was to assemble. Now, in 
fact, this dream was in a measure realized. How many of us 
today know that Otset'O county, with its centre at Cooperstown, 
was lor many years the third most important county in the 
state, outstripped in population and wealth only by New York 
and Oneida? Who of us realize that Otsego's population was 
greater in 1810 than it was in 1900? What then was it that 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 149 

called a halt to our progress? It was the introduction of steam 
power. Railroads have side-tracked us. Steam has made it 
possible to open the vast prairies for settlement, and the ever 
restless and pushirg Yankee farmer has left for tbe Dakotasj 
the little mill by the stream is closed to give way to the hum- 
ming factory built by the side of the main artries of trade. No 
longer- the river but the steel rail. The forces of nature have 
been set aside for artificial power. The application of steam 
power has made it unnecessary to seek location for factories 
where they could obtain natural power. But here l?;t us pause, 
at the beginning of the 20th century, let us indulge in a dream 
of our own. Science produces steam, but science is advancing, 
and science knows that artificial means to produce power is not 
economy. Robert Fulton is to have a great monument erected 
to commemorate his fame, but his reign is over. Electr'cal 
power is to be the power of the future, and already those who 
are producing this fofce have returned to the old natural agent 
for producing power. Streams and lakes are already being har- 
nessed for the creation of this new force. Any one of us to-day 
can travel a few miles from Cooperstown down the Susquehanna 
and see for themselves. Then how long will it be before this fine 
reservoir of Otsego will be drawn upon to perform its share of 
the national developement? This may be in a sense a digres- 
sion, but it certainly is a subject that furnishes food for 
thought. Perhaps before many years, Otsego county may 
again have a thriving and profitable manufacturing population, 
equipped with electrical power furnished by its streams and thea 
will our deserted farms find tenants and our farmers a home 
market. 

It would not be proper, in writing an article about Coopers- 
town, to fail paying full respect to the character and ability of 
William Cooper, its founder. Few of us nowadays can appre- 
ciate what it cost in energy to be a pioneer in the days of our 
ancestors. Cooper set out from his home in Burlington, N. J., 
on horse back and alone, to discover the land of Central and 
Western New York. He rode 300 miles to the source of the 
Susquehanna. He thence traversed the whole of the western 
part of the state, subsisting on game and fish and tethering his 
horse by the side of the streams, where it could find pasture* 
The country was dense forest and yet he was able to write a 



150 TRIBUTES TO COOPER AND COOPERSTOWN. 

description of the land which would bother most of us to-daj to 
beat. His knowledge of the g-eography and topography was inti- 
mate. He passed over the "iand and noted everything. He 
described it in such a way that no one could mistake him. He 
speaks of the wonderful advantages of Western New York in 
having water ways to make transportation cheap, and points 
out the natural spots in a diversity of locations, or trading cen- 
ters, to be established and developed. With marvellous insight 
in to the future he predicts the construction of the Erie Canal, 
and points out the great advantages to be obtained for New 
York City by its construction. Cooper was versatile. His 
information about husbandry was unbounded. He soon found 
out what were the best crops for soil and climate. He showed 
himsejf to be a man of singularly shrewd knowledge of how to 
colonize and to satisfy the requirements of poor settlers. He 
iound means to protect them in days of adversity and so caused 
them to bring out the largest results for the benefit of the whole 
community. He bought up enormous tracts of land and resold 
them at large profit to himself and got the people onto the land, 
and this he did where others had signally failed, He gave his 
name to this village, and it is his most enduring monument to 
his fame and is shared in by all the country side for miles 

around. 

G. HYDE CLARKE. 



James Fenimore Cooper. 



Mighty Magician, whose mysterious skill, 

Touches and brings to life a vanish'd race: 

Haunting Otsego's shore, her vale and hill, 

The Red Man finds again his hunting place. 

Across the bosom of his once dear lake. 

Again the birch canoe in silence flies, 
The stealthv paddle leaves a silver wake, 

While from the sedge the startled heron cries. 

The Indian lives, almost we see his form. 

Lithe as a panther, climb from height to height, 

He bends his bow, his brown and sinewy arm, 

Guides the swift arrow's straight and certain flight. 




Float No. 11. Orphanage. 







Float No. 13. Hop Picking at I'ncas Farm. 



150 TRIBUTES TO COOPER AND COOPERSTOWN. 

description of the land which would bother most of us to-day to 
beat. His knowledge of the geography and topography was inti- 
mate. He passed over the iand and noted everything. He 
described it in such a way that no one could mistake him. He 
speaks of the wonderful advantages of Western New York in 
baving water ways to make transportation cheap, and points 
out the natural spots in a diversity of locations, or trading cen- 
ters, to be established and developed. With marvellous insight 
in to the future he predicts the construction of the Erie Canal, 
and points out the great advantages to be obtained for New 
York City by its construction. Cooper was versatile. His 
information about husbandry was unbounded. He soon found 
out what were the best crops for soil and climate. He showed 
himsejf to be a man of singularly shrewd knowledge of how to 
colonize and to satisfy the requirements of poor settlers. He 
iound means to protect them in days of adversity and so caused 
them to bring out the largest results for the benefit of the whole 
community. He bought up enormous tracts of land and resold 
them at large profit to himself and got the people onto the land, 
and this he did where others had signally failed. He gave his 
name to this village, and it is his most enduring monument to 
his fame and is shared in by all the country side for miles 
around. 

G. HYDE CLARKE. 

James Fenimore Cooper. 



Mighty Magician, whose mysterious skill, 

Touches and brings to life a vanish'd race: 

Haunting Otsego's shore, her vale and hill. 

The Red Man finds again his hunting place. 

Across the bosom of his once dear lake. 

Again the birch canoe in silence flies, 
The stealthv paddle leaves a silver wake, 

While from the sedge the startled heron cries. 

The Indian lives, almost we see his form. 

Lithe as a panther, climb from height to height, 

He bends his bow, his brown and sinewy arm, 

Guides the swift arrow's straight and certain flight. 




Fluat >'o. 11. Orphanage. 




Float >o. IS. Hop Picking at Uncas Farm. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. J5J 

Echo on echo answers to his call, 

He treads the forest paths by night and day, 
Great Oaks and Pine Trees his Ancestral Hall, 

The spring his wine-press and the deer his prey. 

Thou'st peopled all the Country of the Lake, 

And Romance swings a golden Censer there, 

As mists low lying, which the sun beams wake, , 

Shed radiant moisture on the summer air. 

Beloved Magician, at thy simple shrine 

Today let all the world in reverence bow, 

Greatest in this, that at a touch of thine 

J he Red Man lives, immortal he and thou. 

FLORENCE ST. JOHN WARDWELL. 



Fenimore Cooper, the Novelist. 



Critics of the modern school have often wondered at the 
success which has so long attended the writings of Cooper. 
His books have lived when more ambitious writings have per- 
ished. His popularity today shows no sign of waning. All 
bis modern imitators, both in England and France, have failed to 
make and maintain a vogue equal to their master's. In novels 
of the sea neither Marry att nor Clark Russell has been able to 
take his place in the popular regard, nor to equal his power. 
In the tales of Indian life, despite the fact that the Indians are 
not real and the trappers are artificial, no writer has surpassed 
him. Why should romantic novels have so vital and enduring 
a success in the case of Cooper and prove so frail a medium of 
fame for all his successors? The answer to the question 
explains the actual powers of Fenimore Cooper. 

He was the pathfinder in this domain of romance, he blazed 
the trail, and exhausted the field for all who came after him. 
There was left little to do but imitate. The entire body of 
scouts, from the earliest member to Buffalo Bill, are simply 
variants of Natty Bumppo. 

The real Indian had no more beauty in him than the aver- 
age savage, a fact proved triumphantly by '"the failure of the 



;52 TRIBUTES TO COOPER AND COOPERSTOWN. 

Indian novel. A savage provides no interest except for the 
ethnologist and the missionary. He is mostly disgusting, with 
all his virtue. Cooper must have known that, for he saw the 
Indian in his native state. With the daring of the true roman- 
cer, he invented an Indian whose singular beauty harmonized 
with the solemn and mysterious wilderness of the new world. 
That virgin forest loomed large in the imagination of all men 
at that period; and to have it peopled by a red race, grave, stoi- 
cal, simple, philosophical, noble and rnelaucholy, caught and 
held the fancy of mankind. How many times have the histori- 
ans and ethnologists told us that Cooper's Indian never exist- 
ed? How often have the critics urged u? to ponder on the im- 
mortality of such books, which mask the truth and fact by a 
sickly romanticism? Yet the books continue to delight, while 
their realistic substitutes fail! Cooper lives ia opposition to the 
critics, because the life in bis books, all defects admitted, is as 
true as it is brilliant. The surge of the wild sea, the mystery of 
the great wilderness, the power of sailor, of savage, of settler, 
the pulse of the great contest for possession, the main lines of 
life and action, in a word, are all there; and the realism which 
brings these things so close that one can smell the bilge-water 
and the surf, or taste the venison of the campfire, or study the 
paint on a warrior's cheek, has not proved so good a preserver 
of a writer's fame as the romanticism which Cooper adopted 
because he could not help himself. It was not only in his tem- 
perament. His theme demanded the haze of romance. 

We all sympathize with the exponents of literary taste, the 
defenders of modern standards, at the stubborn popularity of the 
novelists. That his books refuse to vanish, that the children 
of men linger over his pages in every generation, that his charm 
is perennial, should not set them railing at the prevailing lack 
of taste, but rather warn them of the existence of a power in 
the books of Cooper, which they will not recognize because his 
form of expression is distasteful to them. 

JOHN TALBOT SMITH. 



THE GCXDPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL, f53 

Cooperstown. 



The village of Cooperstown, which is just now celebrating 
the one hundredth anniversary of its incorporation, may prop- 
erly be treated of under three aspects — first, as it is favored by 
nature; second, as it is consecrated by leg-end and literary gen- 
ius; and third, as it is a community of homes. If is no small 
advantage for a people lo live amid scenes of great natural 
beauty, where hill, river, and lake combine harmoniously and in 
such manner as not only to satisfy, but to delight the heart and 
imagination. The natural charm possessed by this place may 
be at the first view less striking than that produced by the sub- 
lime scenery where mountains play a conspicuous part, yet the 
very modesty of its unique perfections appeals with peculiar 
force to a fastidious taste. It is hazardous to express oneself 
about things that beggar description. It is too much like try- 
ing to gild refined gold or paint the lily. To call Otsego Lake 
beautiful would be as much a pleonasm as it would be to call a 
Frenchman witty. The immediate fascination which the lake 
has for those who see it for the first time and in one of its best 
moods, was once well indicated by a discriminating stranger 
who, in the dusk of evening, saw it from Lakewood Cemetery. 
After standing for a few minutes in silent admiration, he said: 
'*Well, if they ever bury me here, I shall want them to take the 
coppers off my eyes." If it were ever possible to worship nature, 
it would seem that such adoration could be indulged m here. 
Here, if anywhere, the lines of Elizabeth Barrett Browning- 
would fitly apply: — 

Earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush 
Afire with God, but only he who sees 
Takes off his shoes. 

Natural scenery is said to have appealed to Walter ScDtt only 
so far as it had local legend associated with it, though he often 
depicted nature with care and in a happy manner. Cooper, on. 
the contrary, if his descriptive writings are taken as evidence, 
loved nature for its own sake. The former, it may be claimed, 
had as a natural setting for the creations of his fancy nothing 
of superior charm to what Cooper found here in the wilds of 
America. The Scottish Lakes, Loch Katrine and Lock 



154 TRIBUTES TO COOPER AND COOPERSTOWN. 

JLomond, as the work of God's band, have a picturesque beauty 
in no way surpassing that of Lake Otsego. It might seem, 
however, that the "dramatis personae" of Scott's writings, half 
historic and half his own creations, the historic ones including 
even royalty, would give the Scotch romancer a distinct advan- 
tage, — that Marie, Queen of Scots, Fitz James, Roderick Dhu, 
and Ellen Douglas would quite put out of competition the sim- 
ple frontier folk and untutored savages of the New World. But 
whatever advantage, if any, the Britain had over the American, 
was not due to the social rank of his characters. That Cooper 
was successful in peopling the wilderness with persons so hum- 
ble, and yet characters concededly proof against oblivion, is 
greatly to his credit, — 

"And Natty won't go to oblivion quicker 
Than Adams the parson or Primrose the vicar." 
While Cooperstown, considered as a home has no special 
claim to be chronicled beyond what could be urged for other 
communities, still this home phase of the subject, wherein every- 
day citizenship, with its humdrum activities and its neigh- 
borly loves and strifes, has for a hundred years been working 
out the problems common to all civic life, should not be lost 
sight of in connection with a centennial event. The long con- 
tinuous association of the same people, their personal friend-, 
ships and family intimacies, are factors worthy ol note. The 
genius of Cooper should not absorb the interest of the occasion 
to the exclusion of everything else. If we were memorializing 
the one hundredth anniversary of Cooper's birth, the case would 
indeed be different. There are many minor characters that have 
figured significantly in the scenes of our village, lesser lights 
when compared with Cooper, who have lived their day and left 
their impress upon things human. From among them the liv- 
ing may select each his own as predilection dictates. Every 
one has a few choice souls who have "crossed the bar and gone 
out to sea," who, besides having possessed native qualities that 
ennoble nuraan nature, have a precious meaning to him person- 
ally. Let such a one, searching among the "hie jacets" of the 
dead, 

" — from the inscription wipe the weeds and moss. 
For every heart best knoweth its own loss." 

JOHN G. WIGHT. 




Float No. 14. A iVlodern lutlustry, Francis ^^■agou AVorks. 




Float No. 13. Thanksgivinjj Hospital Ambulance. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 155 

A New Glimpse of Cooper. 



James Fenimore Cooper must have been a genuine lover of 
children, from my recollections of him. To meet him on the 
street in the village of Cooperstown was always a pleasure — 
his eye twinkled, his face beamed and his cane pointed at you 
with a smile and a greetiag of some forthcoming humor. When 
I happened to be passing the gates of the old "Hall" and he 
and Mrs. Cooper were driving home from his farm I often ran 
to open the gate for him, which trifling act he acknowledfjed 
with old-time courtesy. His fine garden joined my father's and 
once being in the vicinity of the fence he tossed me several 
muskmelons to catch— which at that time were quite rare in the 
village gardens. 

In 1844, Mr. Cooper sent me a picture book called "The 
Young American's Library: The Primer," published by Wiley 
and Putnam, New York, from an English copy, accompanied by 
a note from him written on large paper with a large seal— no 
envelope. The picture-book I have kept for sixty-three years, 
and it is still delightful reading. It is classed as "rare" by 
book collectors; its associations make it priceless to me. A 
copy of Mr. Cooper's note accompanying the little book is as 
follows: 

"Hall, Cooperstown, Apr. 22nd, 1844. 

Mr. Fenimore Cooper begs Miss Alice Worthington will do 
him the favor to accept the accompanying book. Mr. Cooper is 
quite aware that Miss "Worth in gton's education is advanced 
beyond the commencement of this work (which was written 
expressly for the Princess Alice of Great Britain), but that por- 
tion of the volume may be of service to her little brother who 
will be highly diverted at finding letters cutting so many cap- 
ers. 

Mr. Cooper felt quite distressed for Miss Worthiagton's 
muff during the late hot weather and begs to offer the use of 
his new ice-house should the muff complain. *Miss Beebe can 
also find a cool spot for her favorite in a corner of the same 
building, which will be altogether at her service." 

•A cousin of mine and I were walking out on a hot day in 



156 TRIBUTES TO COOPER AND COOPERSTOWN* 

April with our precious muffs, which g^ave him the merry 
thought about the ice house. 

In 1848 I received another letter from him written on the 
same large paper enclosed in a yellow envelope. I had sent him 
a certain cutting from a newspaper regarding one cf his books 
(probably the suggestion of an older head). His handwriting 
was fine, beautifully clear, and very distiaguished. 

"Otsego Hall, Cooperstown, Feb. 12th, 1848. 
My dear Miss Alice SVorthington: 

I have received your let- 
ter with the most profound sentiments of gratitude. The com- 
pliment from the newspapers did not make half the impression 
that was made by your letter. I am so much accustomed to 
newspapers, that their censure and their praise pass but for 
little, but the attentions of a young lady of your tender years, 
to an old man, who is old enough to be her grandfather are not 
so easily overlooked. Nor must you mistake the value I attEch 
to the passage cut from the paper, for, even that coming- 
through your little hands is far sweeter than would have been 
two candy horns filled with sugar plums. 

I hope that you and I and John will have an opportunity of 
visiting the black-berry bushes, next summer, in company. I 
now invite you to select your party to be composed of as many 
little girls, and little boys, too, if you can find those you. like, 
to go to my farm next summer, and spend an hour or two in 
finding berries. It shall be your party, and the invitations 
must go out in your name, and you must speak to me about it, 
in order that I may not forget it, and you can have your school 
if you like, or any one else. I shall ask only one guest myself, 
and that will be John, who knows the road, having been there 
once already. 

With the highest consideration, 

your most obliged, and most humble servant, 

J. Fenimore Cooper. 

Miss Alice Worthiugton, Cooperstown." 

ALICE TRUMBULL SYNNOTT. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 157 

Lines Written by J. Fenimore Cooper in Otsego Hall, 

August, 1843. 



To Caroline A. Foot. 
"Multum in parvo," e'en this book 

Hath thrice been sent to me; 
Until it frowning- seems to look 

Reproaches dire from thee, 
For fickle oaths, forgotten troth 
And other vows between us both. 

But now, dear Cally, comes the hour 
When triumph crowns thy will, 

Submissive to thy winning power 
I seize the recreant quill; 

Indite these lines to bless thy days, 

And sing my paeans in thy praise. 

But dearest child, 'twixt thee and me 

No flattering strain can swell, 
'Tis truth alone thou most would say, 

And truth that I would tell; 
Forgetful of thy transient cares 
Receive my blessing and my prayers. 

In after life when thou shalt grow 

To womanhood, and learn to feel 
The tenderness the aged know 

To guide their children's weal, 
Then wilt thou bless with bended knee 
Some smiling child as I bless thee. 

J. Fenimore Cooper. 
The above was written by J. Fenimore Cooper for Caroline 
A. Foot, now Mrs. G. Pomeroy Keese, when she was a school- 
girl of 13 years. 

As she was soon to leave Cooperstown, were she had been 
some time a resident and a frequent visitor at Otseg-o Hall, 
where she always had a warm welcome from Mr. Cooper and his 
family, she was anxious to have something from his pen. So 
she made bold to enter his sanctum, carrying her album in her 
hand, and asking him to write a verse or two in the same. 



158 TRIBUTES TO COOPER AND COOPERSTOWN. 

At first he declined, saying that he was no poet, but after 
repeated solicitations he at last consented. Her delight waa 
great, not only in receiving the very graceful, loving sentiment 
contained in the four verses, but also for his autograph, which 
at this day is rare and valuable. 

Not long after a copy of this poem was sent to an old school 
friend, Julia Bryant, daughter of the poet, and as Bryant and 
Cooper were mutual friends, Miss Bryant wrote that she should 
never be satisfied until she too had a few lines with Mr. Cooper'* 
autograph. 

The request was made and at once Cooper, seated at his desk 
in old Otsego Hall with his young petitioner by his side, wrote 
the following verse: 

"Charming young lady, Miss Julia by name, 

Your friend little Cally your wishes proclaim; 

Read this and you'll soon learn to know it, 
I'm not your papa the great lyric poet." 

J. Fenimore Cooper. 



The House Speaks. 



"Pretty? No, that word does not express it; you go by 
sounds." 

The tree murmured inarticulately, the house listened with at- 
tention, apparently the murmuring was articulate to her. 

"You see the lake stirred suddenly by night breezes and lit 
up faintly by the moon? How of ten tou have described your 
visions to me! In my earliest days, I, too, could see the lake 
quite plainly, but now for many a year you've seen it for me." 

The tree, assenting, touched his friend's cheek gently — the 
cheek, though rugged, was yet firm and comely. 

"We've been good allies," the house resumed, "in all our 
storms we've stood together. You've sheltered me, and I have 
given you my best — the great tradition — I hope I have preserved 
that faithfully?" 

The tree caressed the house, the wind was rising, a sound 
came from the hills as though of muffled thunder. The hour 
was midnight. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 159 

"Never learn to speak!" the house exclaimed. "As you 
know, I have not always spoken and even now the words come 
painfully. It took me half a century to decipher my own in- 
scription, and nearly ten years more from those few letters to 
evolve a language. Nevertheless, I don't regret the labour, the re- 
sult has given me so much — the talks with you, dear. We used 
to speak by signs, and there you had the advantage, since with 
a touch you told me everything. You tell me now ttiat you are 
proud of me. Because I've stood my ground, not heeding 
changes? But that was natural — I was built by William 
Cooper. I think of that whenever small things trouble me. 
It's not the staring, I'm used to that; besides, you shield my 
features. No, it's rather a lack of understanding, sometimes. 

"Remember him? My friend, he has been with me always. 
Bis kind, strong face has smiled at me on many a bleak, black 
evening. (A fancy? Perhaps, but what a happy one! I live 
on fancies, nowadays, and your fidelity.) I've longed at such 
times to ask him what he thought of us, but I've never had the 
courage. Instead, I've kept quite still and held myself up 
straighter; I, at least, can never forget my builder. Partial? 
I may be, but I am so deliberately. I like to think of him as 
fine and noble; a pioneer, keen-sighted and intelligent, who in 
his sagacity recognized the qualities of this region, a region 
that his son was afterwards to make illustrious. Ah, how well 
I knew the great romancer, he was a frequent guest of mine. 
Sometimes I suspect that all my thoughts, and yours too, came 
from that one brain, which in its large creativeness, scattered 
fancies broadcast, careless of hoarding, where the store seemed 
inexhaustible. Yes, he was our greatest glory, and when he 
died it was a heavy day. We all mourned — lake, woods, brooks, 
and flowers, even the rough loads grieved their hearts away. 
And since that time — it must be three score years now — I've 
watched each night for his return, hoping against hope that he 
might re-visit his Otsego, a place he loved so constantly in life. 
And hoping this, I have composed a message, to come through 
me from all the speechless things— the hills and waters that 
owe their fame to his descriptions. Yes, I shall repeat it, if he 
should ever pass my way— Hush, was that a horseless carriage? 
I feel so lost somehow in this new age. It's only at night that 
I recover a little confidence, it's only at night that I'm myself 



i60 TRIBUTES TO COOPER AND COOPERSTOWN. 

at all. And even then, the strange white light confuses me — 
you and I were satisfied with the moon. Old-fashioned? You 
may well say that; if not for vou and my dear memories, [ 
think my poor old heart would wither and die." 

The tree bent lower, whispering something soothingly, to 
which the house responded eagerly. 

"How pTfttty that is! Yes, 1 understand you, I always 
shall, as long as you and I endure. Tell me how the lake looks 
now? Dark and stormy? That is how I like it best. I wish 
my eyes could be for once as high as yours are." 

The house brolie oflF, the tree lifted beseeching fingers, 
whereupon the house went on again. 

"The message? I am half-afraid to tell it lest it should 
not sound quite right. Words don't come easily, I was over six- 
ty before I even began to speak. But I will try, please listen 
critically, and afterwards say frankly what you think. I have 
had it Inng in mind, and yet it halts in places; it takes a cen- 
tury, doubtless, to construct good prose. This is it: 

'Dear Vanished Magician: 

Greeting from your old time friends! We have neither for- 
gotten nor grown indifferent, we care as much as when you went 
away — nay more, perhaps, since lost things reach the stars. 
And this is what we say to you; I am speaking for Otsego, 
although my voice alasl is not so sweet as hers. We thank you 
for your brave, true character, that made you honoured wher 
ever you went; we thank you for your tender-heartedness, that 
made you loved by weak and strong; we thank you for your 
noble intellect, that made you famous throughout the world. 
Most of all, we thank you for your great creations, those living 
beings, who haunt our lake to-day. And so, dear Master, take 
our loving homage, and give us one kind thought as you 
pass by.*' 

Silence reigned again, the house waited anxiously, she did 
not even raise her eyes. 

At last the tree, much moved, stretched out his arms and 
clasped her. And after that, there was no need of moiu. 

CLARt; BENEDICT. 



Report of the Treasurer. 



RECEIPTS. 

A. Busch, 

J. J. Hopkins, 

C. F. Thelson, 
1}. Martin, 

J. M. Bowers, 
Dr. M. I. Bassett, 
Mary Bingham, 
Wedderspoon & Whipple, 

D. H. Gregory, 
Miss Randall, 
Geo. Groat, 
Mrs. P. Cook, 
W. H. Martin, 
Miss K. ly. Mather, 
The Misses Paulding, 
Mrs. and Miss Benedict, 
G, W. Fairchild, 
Chas. Smith, 

Mrs. Kent Jarvis, 

Theo. Ernst, 

Cash, no name, 

Mary Worthington, 

C. N. Duyckinck, 

H. T. Bryce, 

T. R. Proctor, 

Chas. P. Rogers, 

C. F. Zabriskie, 

John Worthington, 

Shumway Bros.^ 

W. D. Johnson, 

Wm. Cobbett, 

A. R. Smith, 

Rev. P. A. H. Brown, 

Miss Arnold and sisters, 

Mrs. Charlotte P. Browning, 

W. C. Stokes, 

M. C. Jermain, 

S. S. Spaulding, 

Mrs. Henrietta Pell-Clarke, 

Prof. M. J. Mnlter, 

W. P. K. Fuller, 





Dr. H. D. & Miss F. V. Sill, 


SO 00 


1100 00 


Dr. John G. Wight, 


5 00 


10 00 


National Express Co., 


2S 00 


10 00 


Dr. A. J. Butler, 


5 00 


1 00 


John Marsh, 


IS 00 


200 00 


G. H.White, 


10 00 


10 00 


Simon Uhlmann, 


25 00 


5 00 


Dr. Morgan Dix, 


25 00 


10 00 


E. Averell Carter, 


SO 00 


5 00 


Dr. J. E. Janvrin, 


10 00 


5 00 


E. A. Kaple, 


S 00 


5 00 


James Fenimore Cooper, 


SO 00 


5 00 


Church & Scott, 


50 00 


1 00 


Beattie & Doubleday, 


25 00 


10 00 


M. F. Augfur, 


25 00 


5 00 


W. H. Michaels, 


25 00 


60 00 


B. F. Murdock's Sons, 


50 00 


25 00 


Frank Lettis, 


25 00 


10 00 


Smith & Ross, 


20 00 


5 00 


Wm. Dutcher, 


25 00 


5 00 


George Farquharson, 


S 00 


2 00 


H. Reisman, 


20 00 


5 00 


W. E. McEwan, 


10 00 


50 00 


Pappas, 


10 00 


SO 00 


Ah Choy, 


1 00 


10 00 


A. J. Telfer, 


5 00 


40 00 


E. E. '^axton, 


5 00 


75 00 


Dr. J. H. Moon, 


S 00 


5 00 


Fred Eettis, 


10 00 


3 00 


N. W. Cole, 


5 00 


5 00 


W. C. Fowler, 


10 00 


5 00 


A. B. Clarke, 


5 00 


10 00 


Frank Hale, 


S 00 


25 00 


F. B. Shipman, 


5 00 


10 00 


T. C. Turner, 


10 00 


, 3 00 


Asa Acker, 


10 00 


50 00 


Austin & Delong, 


10 00 


25 00 


E. E. Skinner, 


1 00 


25 00 


B. Clark, 


2 00 


50 00 


A. T. VanHorne, 


S 00 


5 00 


Schneider Bros., 


10 00 


5 00 


D. E. Siver, 


10 00 



}62 



REPORT OF THE TREASURER. 



C. B. Cooley. 

Mrs. Lucy B. Harris, 

Mrs. Florence E. Whitbeck, 

Geo. L. Turner, 

J. D. Valentine, 

Dr. B. W. Dewar, 

The Clinton Mills Power Co., 

Taylor & Ellsworth, 

Rev. Sidney S. Conger, 

Dr. J. B. Conkling, 

G. M. Jarvis, 

W. J. Ashton, 

H. W. Bean. 

Win. Constable, 

Georg-e Strachan, 

Mrs. Katharine J. Townsend, 

L. M. Barnum, 

J. G. White, 

Brainard & Sherwood, 

If. A. Cossaart, 

A. S. Potts, 
John Cronauer, 

B. S. Morgan, 
W. M. Bronner, 

D. R. Dorn, 
Spingler it Gould, 
Geo. H. Carley, 
Brazee & Boden, 
G. W. Lang-, 
Waldo Cory, 

M. E. Lippitt, 
W. F. Wagner, 
W. Scott Root, 

E. D. Stocker, 

Austin, Bolton & Bronner, 

Thos. Kelsey, 

J. E. Reynolds, 

Dr. A. S. Knapp, 

J. B. Slote, 

R. O. Marshall, 

C. A. Franc's, 
Mrs. M. A. Smith, 
W. R. Littell, 
Jackson & Brooks, 
Mrs. C. A. Burch, 
A. C. Shipraan, 
Justin Lang-e, 
Miss N. Davison, 



5 00 


Harry Pitcher, Lunch Wagon, 


, 5 00 


25 00 


Dr. C. V. S. Evans, 


3 00 


25 00 


C. F. Root, 


10 00 


1 00 


Rev. T. A. Early. 


10 00 


5 00 


D. J. McGown, 


20 00 


5 00 


C. G. Tennant, 


5 00 


100 00 


Dr. E. L. Pitcher, 


5 00 


25 00 


C. R. Hartson. 


25 00 


25 00 


A. J. Gardner, 


5 00 


10 00 


R. R. Converse, 


5 00 


5 00 


C. W. McLane, 


5 00 


25 00 


B. J. Graves, 


10 00 


100 00 


John Bowmaker, 


5 00 


100 00 


Win. Southworth, 


2 00 


10 00 


Dr. A. N. Beach. 


5 00 


25 00 


P. Hotaling. 


5 00 


25 00 


G. M. Wedderspoon, 


10 00 


5 00 


G. B. Woodman, 


15 00 


10 00 


Arnold & Cooke, 


100 00 


10 00 


C. M. Allison, 


10 00 


20 00 


H. Bancroft, 


5 00 


10 00 


Second National Bank, 


100 00 


25 00 


J. P. Doane, 


5 00 


10 00 


H. K. Murdock, 


5 00 


25 00 


Bundy Shoe Store, 


10 00 


25 00 


C. W. Smith, 


20 00 


25 00 


A. S. Phinney, 


25 00 


25 00 


R. A. Davy, 


2 00 


5 00 


Dr. James Burton, 


10 00 


20 00 


Rev. Ralph Birdsall, 


5 00 


25 00 


Bundy Bros. St. Cruttenden, 


100 00 


5 00 


F. G. Lee, 


50 00 


10 00 


Mrs. Maria M. C. Smith, 


5 00 


10 00 


W. F. Morgan, 


50 00 


25 00 


A. Ryerson, 


50 00 


10 00 


S. L. Warrin, 


5 00 


5 00 


One-half proceeds of Centen- 




S 00 


nial Ball, 


65 00 


5 00 


F. W. Green, 


25 00 


5 00 


International Cheese Co., 


100 00 


5 00 


Frank Mulkins, 


20 00 


5 00 


Mrs. J. A. Schroni, 


5 00 


10 00 


Miss Grace 8. Bowen, 


5 00 


10 00 


W. C. Austin, 


10 00 


5 00 


N. P. Willis, 


10 00 


5 00 


J. J. Byard, Jr., 


15 00 


25 00 


F. W. Spraker, 


5 00 


1 00 


Otsego Lake Transit Co., 


50 00 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 



ItZ 



L. H. Spencer, 


10 00 


C. T, Brewer, 


10 00 


J. F. & J. H. Mecneghan, 


5 00 


E. A. Potter, 


5 00 


John K. Doan, 


5 00 


C. W. Davidson, 


25 00 


One-half proceeds of Maccabee 


Ball, 


19 SO 


J. F. Brady & Co., 


25 00 


J. A. M. Johnston, 


10 00 


Stephen C. Clark, 


500 00 


Edward S. Clark, 


500 00 


Mrs. H. C. Potter, 


500 00 


F. A. Clark, 


500 00 


M. Hanlon, 


50 00 


Chas. O'Hagan, 


5 00 


G. Pomeroy Keese, 


10 00 


Mrs. S. H. Cobb, 


5 00 


F. P. Fuller, 


1 00 


R. H. White, 


10 00 


R. G. White, 


5 00 


Village of Cooperstown, 


200 00 


F. ly. Quaif , 


5 00 


F. D. Gilbert, 


2 00 


Crist, Scott & Parshall, 


50 00 




*$6,000 50 


DISBURSEMENTS. 



Advertising, Printing, &c. 

W. B. Littell, for postage, $24 00 

C. T. Cooke, expenses, adver- 
tising, 80 70 

W. B. Littell, expenses pub- 
licity nom., 

Oneonta Press, advertising, 

Unadilla Times, advertising, 

Bichfleld Springs Mercury, 
advertising, 

Worcester Times, advertising. 

Citizens Pub. Co. , 

Oneonta Herald, 

Edmeston Local, 

Bural Times, Otego, 

The Otsego Journal, 

John Sawyer, 

Monitor Publishing Co., adver 
tising, 6 00 



5 96 


5 GO 


10 00 


6 00 


6 00 


19 20 


10 GO 


6 00 


5 GO 


8 00 


5 00 



M. Hanlon, balloon ticket din- 
ners, 2 26 

P. J. Carney, adv. conductors' 
excursion. 15 00 

L. P. Carpenter & Sons, adver- 
tising, 6 00 

E. A. Tibbits, typewriting, 3 50 

Oneonta Star, advertising, 13 80 

Otsego Tidings, '• 5 00 

C. B. Cooley, printing pro- 
grams, 12 00 

Mrs. F. M. Shumway, reporting 
relig., lit., hist, exercises, 25 00 

Transit Co., balloon tickets 

around lake, 5 25 

Freeman's Journal, programs, 
dodgers, &c., 91 65 

Otsego Bepublican, printing 

ordered by print, com., 89 05 

Crist, Scott & Parshall, print- 
ing ordered by print, com., 76 41 

Carr's Hotel, balloon ticket 
dinners, 1 00 



*«543 26 



DECOBATINQ. 



B. G. White to Saratoga to 
see Koster, 13 50 

B. G. White, postage, 80 

The C. H. Koster Co., deco- 
rating, 1,070 00 

Elbelight Co., of America, 
light on Main St., 400 00 

B G. White, expenses for tele- 
phone service, 1 60 

The C. H. Koster Co., extra 
bunting, 1 52 

Beattie & Doublebay, lanterns, 

&c., 32 45 



*«1,519 87 

PBOGBAMME COMMITTEE. 

Expenses in effort to secnre 

Firemen's tournament, 65 82 

H. Ellsworth, moving piano, 10 00 



164 



REPORT OF THE TREASURER. 



Oneonta Basket Ball team, 
fares and meals, 10 60 

A. J. Butler, porters, &o., 2 85 
Marion Cadets, military enter- 
tainment, 50 00 

B. A. Cook, moving pictures, 150 00 
Military Co., Albany, 530 00 
Ed. Adams, dynamite and 

firing salute, 15 00 

Ed. Adams, scraping track at 

fair grounds, 8 75 

W, H. Martin, basket ball ma- 
terials and telephoning ser- 
vice, 51 

H, F. Campbell, services in 
matter Marion Military Co. , 12 00 



*«855 43 



LITERARY. 

Chas. Elliott for literary ar- 
ticle, 20 00 
John Worthington, postage, 3 00 
Expenses Mr. Bunn and Halsey, 

speakers, 45 00 

Brander Matthews, speaker, 250 00 
M. Hanlon for room and board 

Ml. Halsey and family, 25 50 

John Worthington, express, &o., 2 90 



*«346 30 



MUSIC. 

A. deJ. Allez, sundry expenses 5 94 
A. deJ. Allez, music for choir 2 72 
Committee to Albany to hear 

band, 18 86 

W. M. Bronner, orchestra for 

Maccabee ball, 45 00 

O. H. Collins, for band and 

mileage for same, 926 48 

M. Hanlon, board and rooms 

for band, 290 00 

0. F. Farmer, services as fifer 

parade, 5 00 



0. A. Franois, advanced for 
board band man at Carr's 9 00 



♦»1,303 00 



FIREWORKS. 



Paine Mfg. Co. , fireworks and 
firing same, 500 00 

E. Eckler, labor on fireworks 
dock, 12 00 

G. H. White for telephone, 
express and postage, 2 20 

H. E. Lewis & Co. , lumber for 
fireworks dock, 41 62 

N. E. Truax, poles, for fire- 
works dock, 6 60 

Sanford Ballard, labor, 2 50 

John Pank, 8 00 



*«572 92 
Less proceeds sale of fire- 
works dock lumber, 25 00 



$547 92 
BUILDING & BOOTH COM- 
MITTEE. 

B. G. Johnson, paid for labor 

and material, 69 60 

C. F. Root, lumber and labor 

band stand, Ac, 68 69 

A. J. Gage, for drawing chairs, 
lumber, <fec., 25 00 

B. G. Johnson, extra labor on 
band stand, chairs, &c., 4 55 

A. L. Reynolds, cartage, 15 50 



*»183 34 



REGATTA. 



Brainard Sign Co., numbers 
for boats, 8 00 

J. F. Brady & Co., buoy for 

race course, 1 50 

Arries Johnson, labor, 1 60 

M. E. Lii)pitt, for cups and 
engraving same, 108 00 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 



165 



Justus Potter, labor, 4 00 

D. J. McOown, rope, weights 

and rent of lanterns, 16 60 



Cassius Smith, getting rushes 
for decorating, 



50 



*$138 60 

PRIZES FOR ATHLETIC AND 

AQUATIC EVENTS. 
Boston Shoe & Clothing 

House, Mdse., 18 00 

Spingler & Gould, Mdse., 8 00 
Bundy Bros. & Cruttenden, 

Mdse., 3 00 

W. M. Bronner, Mdse., 6 00 

M. E. Lippitt, " 70 00 

Taylor & Ellsworth, Mdse., 4 00 

M. F. Augur, Mdse, 6 00 

B. S. Morgan, " 12 00 

Frank Lettis, " 4 00 

*8130 00 
FLOATS FOR PARADE. 

J. F. Brady & Co., lumber 

and labor, 7 98 

Taylor & Ellsworth, material, 17 69 
Cartage chairs, flags, drums, 

&c.. G. A. R. float, 75 

G. J. VanDerwerker, rent of 

chairs, &c., 1 95 

Bundy Bros. & Cruttenden, 

material, 5 34 

M. Harvey, team G. A. R. float, 8 00 
Lumber, labor, &c.. Orphan 

House float, 9 13 

F. H. McGown, paid for Wash- 
ington and Leatherstocking 
costumes and ex., 6 95 

0. G. Cook, log cabin, 21 65 

H. N. Michaels, paid for bunt- 
ing, 2 55 
B. F. Murdock's Sons, material, 5 34 
D. Salisbury, expenses Gov. 

Dix carriage, 2 00 

Frank Lettis, material, 6 86 

A. Coy, tally-ho and four in 
parade, 17 T5 



*$114 44 
LOAN EXHIBITION. 

Rev. T. B. Roberts, services 
as watchman, 15 00 

F. Eggleston, services as watch- 
man, 20 00 

G. Tiflfany, labor, 5 70 
J. G. Tucker, labor 2 00 
L. Barnum. team to return ex- 
hibits, 1 50 

F. G. Lee, paid for telegraph 

service, 1 28 

W. Cory, wire, glass, &c., 1 56 



*347 04 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



50 
30 



L. N. Wood postage, 1 

A. S. Phinney, " 4 
Arnold & Cooke, postage and 

telephone service, 5 32 

M. E. Lippitt, souvenir badges, 10 00 
Brain ard Sign Co., banners, 

cards. &c., 30 00 
J. B. Slote, plates for taking 

photographs, 12 60 
A. J. Telfer, plates for taking 

photographs, 12 50 
Western Union Telegraph Co., 

telegraph service, 3 40 

W. A. Grover, coat for parade, 2 98 
Davidson's Book Store, record 

books, &c., 1 60 

F. W. Green, livery service, 31 50 

Fred Lettis, " " 12 50 

L. M. Barnum, " " 20 00 

M. F. Augur, envelopes, &c., 1 16 
Otsego Lake Transit Co., boat 

service, 20 00 

A. B. Clark, bridle plumes, 1 60 

H. L. Cooke, postage, 10 00 

M. H. Putnam, cartage, 1 00 

Geo. H. Mitchell, cartage, 2 00 



166 



REPORT OF THE TREASURER. 



G- A. Collar, making canvass for 
boarding places, 4 50 

E. S. Brockham, postage, 3 06 

Brainard Sign Co., sign for in- 
formation bureau, 3 00 

Services and expenses Kev. W. 

B. Wallace, 25 00 

Board of Trade, paid for clean- 
ing Fair Ground, 1 05 

Bev. Ralph Birdsall, postage, 30 

Entertainment officers Albany 

Company, 36 80 

Telephone bill, 25 



H. L Pitcher, lunch for or- 
chestra 2 00 
Otsego Lake Park for boat , 75 

259 90 
Balance turned over to E. S. 
Brockham, Tr., Souvenir 
Books, 11 40 

$6,000 SO 
L. N. WOOD, 
Treas. Oooperstown Centennial 
Celebration. 



Sketches of Several Old Fain< 

ilies and Houses of 

Cooperstown. 



Also Placards of Some Buildings no Longer Standing. 



James Averell Jr. and William Holt Averell. 



Among the early residents of Cooperstown who were closely 
connected with its development and business growth were 
James Averell, Jr., and his second son William Holt Averell. 

James Averell, Jr, prior to his coming to New York State, 
lived in Wyndham county, Conn., and Palmer, Mass. his family 
having had landed interests in New England for several genera- 
tions. His father served for a short time in the Revolutionary 
War with the Cottinental forces. He married Marcia Holt of 
Hampton, Wyndham County. Mr. James Averell was an early 
settler on the patent, having occupied the farm known as the 
Howard farm, in 1787, but he exchanged with Mr. Howard this 
farm against the Tannery, and removed into the village, in the 
year 1792. Here, by his enterprise and industry, he raised the 
works in question into some of the most important of the sort 
that then existed in the newer part of the State. 

WILLIAM HOLT AVERELL. son of James Averell, Jr, 
was born in Cooperstown 1794, and spent his long life there 
residing in the brick house on Main street adjoining the Village 
Library, where he died in 1873. 

He received a thorough collegiate education, graduating 
from Union College in 1817. He studied law and was admitted 
to practice in 1819. Later in life he relinquished his legal prac- 
tice to care for his landed and banking interests. He was one 
of the original directors.of the Otsego County Bank, and was, 



i6Z OLD FAMILIES AND HOUSES. 

for several years, its president. For some time he was one of 
the State Bank Commissioners. 

He emploved much of his capital in assisting and develop- 
ing local enterprises and businesses and in this way did much 
to develop the interests cf the community. 

He married Jane A. M. Russell, daughter of John Russell 
Esq., a lawyer of Hudson and Troy, and a granddaughter of 
Stephen Hogeboom Esq. of Claverack, N. Y. He left one child, 
a daughter, Jane Russell Averel), who became the wife of Wil- 
liam Lawson Carter, and several of their children and grand 
children reside in Cooperstown and its vicinity a part of the 
year in the house known as "Holt-Averell". 



The Averell Cottage. 



The title to the house on Lake street known as the "Aver- 
ell Cottage", was acquired by James Averell, Jr., by deed dated 
Jan. 18th, 1793, signed by the grantors, "William Cooper" and 
"Andrew Craig, by his attorney William Cooper". 

The central part of the house, with chimneys at each end, 
was erected about 1793. The wing towards the east was erected 
1818, as an office for William H. Averell, prior to his marriage, 
one of the sons of Jam 2s Averell, Jr. The present owner, L- 
Averell Carter, a great grandson of the aforesaid James Averell, 
Jr., had the wing towards the north erected. These additions 
to the house have been made without altering the older part of 
it except for the cutting through of doors. 

Although the house has been rented at times, yet the own- 
ership of it has remained continuously since 1793 in James 
Averell, Jr, or his lineal descendants, a period of one hundred 
and fourteen vears. 



Bowers. 



What was long known as the "Bowers Patent" in the Town 
of Middlefield, was originally owned by John R. Myer, of the 
City of New York. His daughter married Henry Bowers, who 
was the father of John M. Bowers, and who inherited the larg^e 




1. Averell Cottave. 3. Lakelands. 3. Phinney House. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 169 

tract of land which subsequetitly bore his name. This tract 
contained upwards of 15,000 acres. It was located on the east 
side of Otsego Lake and the Susquehanna River, and com- 
menced at a point about one and a half miles above the lower 
end of the Lake, and extended south to its outlet the Susque- 
hanna River and down such river between six and seven miles. 

In 1791, a map of this survey was made for Henry Bowers, 
and the original is now at Lakelands, the residence of his great- 
grandson, John M. Bowers. This map shows the then Village 
of Cooperstown and a then intended Village of Bowerstown on 
the opposite side ot the Susquehanna River. It shows the 
Lake and the Susquehanna River, the Red Creek, Oaks Creek, 
and the district in Middlefield so long known as the Beaver 
Meadow, together with the creek called the Beaver Meadow 
Creek. It shows a'considerable number of residences then con- 
structed along the east bank of the Susquehanna River. Most of 
them have no names, but one is described as the residence of 
Nichols, and another as the residence of Ransom, both known 
to be among the earliest settlers in Otsego County. 

At the same time another map or plan was made by the 
direction of Mr. Henry Bowers of the proposed Village of Bow- 
erstown, which extended from the Susquehanna River to the 
base of the hill on the east, and from the Lake to a point about 
950 feet south thereof. The map o^ this projected village shows 
that this plot of land, now represented by Lakelands, and 305 
feet south of the road which forms its southern boundary, was 
laid out in 82 building lots, nearly all of them 85x130 feet, and 
in a building lot 200x260 feet for the Manor Square, on which 
Mr. Bowers proposed to build, and being a part of Lakelands, 
near the Lake and River. Division Street, the main street, waste 
be "as wide as Cooper's Street" and started trom the eastern 
termination of our present Main Street. Later on, Mr. Bowers 
probably changed his plans, and the name "Bowerstown" was 
applied to the hamlet located on Red Creek near its junction 
■with the Susquehanna River. 

In 1840, John M. Bowers completed the construction of the 
building known now for over a century as Lakeland?, and which 
has constituted the residence of the Bowers family, with the 
exception of a tew years, ever since. The grounds surrounding 



)70 OLD FAMILIES AND HOUSES. 

the residence consisted of about 30 acres lying between the lake 
and river and the road from Cooperstown to Springfield. 

John M. Bowers married Miss Margaret Matilda Stewart 
Wilson of "Landsdowne", Hunterdon County, New Jersey, and 
soon after Mr. and Mrs. Bowers had taken up their residence at 
Cooperstown, Mrs. Wilson, the mother ot Mrs. Bowers, joined 
them there, and, with them spent the remainder of her life. 
Mrs. Wilson's father was Colonel Charles Stewart, of the Conti- 
nental Army, who had served as Commissary General of Issues 
on Gen, Washington's staff, and these two ladies, during the 
Revolutionary War, were well acquainted with Gen. Washing- 
ton, and had often entertained him in their hospitable home in 
New Jersey (and afterwards knew him as President of the Unit- 
ed States in Philadelphia), with many other Revolutionary celeb- 
rities. Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Bowers were well known to all 
the older residents of Cooperstown. Their education and asso- 
ciations in early life had been such as to familiarize them with 
the history of our country from its very beginning, and they 
were recognized as an important part of the social life of our 
village. Mrs. Wilson died in 1852 and Mrs. Bowers survived 
until 1872, both being nonagenarians. 

John M. Bowers had but one son, Henry J. Bowers, who 
died in 1896, and his eldest son, John M. Bowers, is now the 
owner and occupant of Lakelands. 

The family have always been identified with the interests 
and development of Cooperstown. 



Pomeroy Place. 



Now that all we have left of Otsego Hall, Fenimore Coop- 
er's home, is the bronze Indian who marks the spot, the old 
stone house now standing at the corner cf Lake and River 
streets, known as "Pomeroy Place", occupies a foremost place 
among the relics of the past. Built by William Cooper in 1804, 
as a wedding gift to his only daughter who had married George 
Pomeroy, late of Northampton, Mass., and grandson of General 
Seth Pomeroy, who fought at Bunker Hill, the house is a mod- 
el of plain and substantial architecture. 

The interesting gable tells the story of the house in^stone. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 17( 

G. A. P. C. are the intermingled initials of the bridegroom 
and bride, George Pomeroy and Ann Cooper, with the date, 
1804. The spread eagle above is not quite as distinct in outline 
but visible all the same. 

After nearly fiftj years of occupancy the house changed own- 
ers and soon after came into the possession of the Bowers family, 
with whom it remained nearly as long, It was a fortunate cir- 
cumstance that when it was again in the market for sale Mrs. 
Benedict, the granddaughter of the original owners, stood ready 
to purchase; and so both Pomeroy Place and Lakelands have 
returned to their first estate. 

A number of relics and curios are now gathered within the 
■walls, souvenirs of Constance Fenimore Woolson during her 
long residence in Europe — her writing table and her author's 
chair. "The Cooper corner" contains the family portraits from 
William Cooper, the founder of Cooperstown, down to the pres- 
ent day — five generations. 

Many are the traditions and legends connected with the old 
stone house — tales of love and war, of tragedy and comedy — 
and many a romance might be written of events within its walls 
if all should see the light. Miss Woolson laid the foundation of 
her literary fame in the title of her first work, "The Old Stone 
House'' and yet left much material for the use of future aspi- 
rants. 

The stone of which the house is built is laid in the peculiar 
herring-bone style in vogue in early days and is as enduring as 
the native hills. Few inncvations have been made and the 
house stands much as it was built 100 years ago. 

Pomeroy Place, with its centurv of years, is the American 
representative of Berry-Pomeroy Castle, Devonshire, England, 
built in 1066 by Sir Ralph de Pomeroy who came over with Wil- 
liam the Conqueror, and from whom the Pomerojs in this coun- 
try are direct descendants. 



Phinney. 



One of the most prominent men amongst the earliest set- 
tlers of Cooperstown was the Hon. Elihu Phinney a native of 
Connecticut, who arrived in the village on the 28th day of Feb- 



172 OLD FAMILIES AND HOUSES. 

ruarv, 1795. On the third of April of that year he published 
the first copy of the "Otsego Herald", the second journal ever 
printed west of Albany, up to that date. This paper was issued 
weekly by him to the year of his death, — 1813, and was contin- 
ued by his sons, Messrs. H. & E. Phinney, until the year 1821, 
when its publication ceased. 

Mr. Phinney was a man of sterling integrity and was hon- 
ored and respected in the community. For six years he was 
Associate County Judge, and was the first County Treasurer. 
His descendants to the sixth generation are residents of the vil- 
lage. Mr. Phinney's two sons, comprising the firm of H. & E. 
Phinney, did an extensive bjok publishing business in addition 
to the publication of the "Otsego Herald". Its output was prin- 
cipally school books and quarto Bibles, whose sale extended 
throughout and beyond the State of New York. For many 
years it also issued a pamphlet entitled "Phinney's Almanac", 
which seems to have had a wide circulation. On one occasion 
in the early Spring an issue of this almanac, through a typo- 
graphical error, predicted a snow storm for the following Fourth 
of Julv. On that particular day, through some freak of nature, 
snow was actually observed to fall in the vicinity of Coopers- 
town, and thereafter the reputation of Phinney's Almanac as an 
infallible weather prophet was established beyond question. 

The firm of H. & E. Phinney employed about forty clerks 
and assistants, and at one time wa? probably the most impor- 
tant enterprise in the County. In the Winter of 1849 it suffered 
two heavy losses by fire, both of them supposed to be of incendi- 
ary origin. During the ensuing year it erected a new stone 
building known as the Phinney Block, which is standing at the 
present time. 



Worthington. 

For three hundred years there has always been a John Wor- 
thington in that branch of the Worthington family that came 
from old England to New England in 1649. John Worthington 
who is the last male descendant of the family now residing in 
this village, was the chairman of the literary committee of the 
Cooperstown centennial celebration. 




1 




'mi 


wm 
ma 

; 111 • " dll^^H 




111 III 
HB IK' 




1 Edgewater. '^. Tlie White House. 3. Woodside. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. J73 

The first of the family to take up residence in the village, 
was Ralph Worthington, who was born in Colchester, Connecti- 
cut, in 1778, and who came to Cooperstown in 1801. He mar- 
ried in 1802, Clarissa Clark, eldest daughter ot Jerome Clark of 
Hartwick, whose father — a captain in the patriot army of the 
American Revolution — lies buried in the cemetery at Cherry 
Valley, N.Y. 

Ralph Worthington built, in 1802, a dwelling on Second 
street (now Main street) which forms a considerable part of the 
Worthington homestead. 

In 1845 Ralph Worthington's eldest son, John Richard, who 
was born in the old homestead in 1804, greatly enlarged the 
house — now familiarly known as the "White house". He died 
in 1878. 

In 1837 John Richard Worthington married Mary Alice 
Dorrance, of Dalton, Mass., a direct descendant of Governor 
Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut and a cousin of the artist, 
John Trumbull. She died in 1894, aged 88 years. All the chil- 
dren of John R. and Mary Alice Worthington were torn in the 
"white house, "which is still occupied by their daughter, Miss 
Mary Worthington. The atmosphere of the venerable Worth- 
ington home is still fragrant with memories of the cordial and 
agreeable hospitalities it has dispensed to friends and neighbors 
for the more than a century of its existence. 

Campbell. 



Robert Campbell was born in Cherry Valley in 1782, was a 
graduate of Union College, became a resident of Cooperstown in 
1802, built the house, in which Theodore C. Turner now resides, 
in 1808, living in same until his death, Aug. 1849. For more 
than a quarter of a century he was popularly designated far and 
near as the "Honest Lawyer" and his legal opinions and advice 
among his professional brethren were highly appreciated and 
regarded as the end of the law. 

He was the first president of the ' 'Old Otsego County Bank" 
now the First National Bank of Cooperstown, of which his 
grandson T. C. Turner, is now cashier. 



174 OLD FAMILIES AND HOUSES. 

Edgewater. 



The property known as Edgewater has had but few changes 
in ownership in the past one hundred years. Originally a part 
of the Cooper patent it fell to Isaac Cooper, on the death of his 
father, in 1809. The year following he commenced the erection 
of the house which seems to have taken nearly four years in 
buildin?, as he did not move into it until 1814. Isaac Cooper 
died January 1st, 1818. How long afterwards his widow and 
family continued to make Edgewater a residence is somewhat 
uncertain, but it subsequenty passed into the hands of a Com- 
pany which had organized to establish a female seminary in 
Cooperstown. The house, having been arranged for such 
occupancy, was opened as a school in 1828, by Miss Gilbert, 
later it was conducted by the Rev. Henry W. Ber.ows. 

The enterprise had but a brief existence and met the fate of 
several later attempts in the same direction in a failure finan- 
cially, for we find that the trustees sold the property in 1834 
to Theodore Keese of New York, who, eight years previously, 
had married the eldest daughter of George Pomeroy and Ann 
Cooper, sister of Isaac Cooper. Thus the property came back 
into the family of the original owner as has been the case 
with several of the houses in Cooperstown. By Mr. Keese it 
was restored to its original use as a private residence and has so 
remained under the ownership of his son, George Pomeroy 
Keese. 

The house, which is one of the most substantial in the vil- 
lage, commanding an uninterrupted view of Otsego lake, was 
modeled after a Colonial residence in Philadelphia, well known to 
the Cooper family. The style of the entrance hall is especially 
unique and the carved wood of the interior, as seen in the door- 
caps and mouldings, is elaborate and characteristic of the period 
of construction. 

The surrounding ground comprises over two acres and ex- 
tends to Otsego lake on the north and River street on the east. 

On the site was encamped a portion of the army of General 
Clinton, when he built the famous dam at the outlet of the lake 
in the summer of 1779. on his way to join Geneial Sullivan in 
his expedition against the Indians at Tioga Point. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 175 

Woodside. 



For many years before Woodside Hall was built an Indian 
wigwam stood exactly where the house now stands. The man- 
sion was erected in 1829 by Judge Eben B. Morehouse, whose 
good taste in selecting that site has been justified by the years 
of admiration which the situation elicited from all who have 
viewed it. 

The acres which compose the Woodside estate were bought 
by Judge Morehouse from the lands embraced in the original 
Bowers Patent. The house, with its noble portico and its spa- 
cious verandas, stands on the slope of Mt. Vision, facing the 
west overlooking the village, with an entrancing view from 
the terraces, of the lake and a semicircle of verdure-clad rolling 
hills and the Susquehanna Valley. 

The woods that come down the mountain and stop just at 
the back of the house, are composed of pines and hemlocks of 
splendid proportions and great antiquity, imposing a shadowy 
atmosphere of mystery to the Hall's environment. The jux- 
taposition of venerable forest and terraced lawn, of nature and 
art, of morning shadow and midday brilliance conspire to make 
Woodside a countryseat of ideal loveliness and fadeless attrac- 
tion. 

Traditions of hospitalities and festivities are still recounted 
by the older villagers, who were participants in the charming 
social life that gave Woodside renown more than half a century 
ago. Those traditions have been revived and made good by 
the present owners of this beautiful estate, Mr. and Mrs. Walter 
C. Stokes, of New York, who, in 1895, bought it and who now 
occupy it as a summer home, and who have restored the atmos- 
phefre of charm and grace that rightfully belong to an old and 
captivating and historic abode. 

A chronicler of events in Cooperstown in the 6rst half of 
the last century relates the following incident of Woodside's 
early life. " In some of these early years — about 1839 — Judge 
Morehouse gave a large evening reception to President Mar- 
tin Van Buren; and it was Mr. Van Buren, with some friend, 
who could not find their way to the Tower, and wandered about 
the grounds for a long time finally coming back to the house 



176 OLD FAMILIES AND HOUSES. 

just as the family were going to bed, for a guide and a light". 

In 1836 Woodside was sold by Judge Morehouse to Samuel 
Wootton Beall, Esquire, a native of Maryland, who had married 
into the family of Cooper, who only owned it for a short time — 
Judge Morehouse buying it back again. The Judge died there 
in 1849. 

In 1856 Mrs. Morehouse sold Woodside to Ho a. Joseph L. 
White, whose family entertained generously and delightfully. 
Mr. White was a distinguished lawyer of New York who became 
identified with the early days of the Nicaragua Canal project. 
He lost his life on the isthmus while employed in the work of 
the canal company, by the bullet ot an assassin. 

After the death of Mr. White the place was bought by Mr. 
John F. Scott, of Cooperstown, whose family occupied the resi- 
dence until Mr. Stokes became its owner. 

Cory. 

The house in which Mrs. Chas. R. Burch resides on Pio- 
neer street, known as the "Holder Cory" place, was built by a 
Mr. Wright previous to 1800, and has been occupied by the mem- 
bers of the Cory family since its erection. 



Hyde HalL 



Hyde Hall, the residence of George Hyde Clarke, is situated 
in the town of Springfield on the side of the hill so prominent in the 
landscape looking up Otsego Lake from Cooperstown, known as 
the "Sleeping Lion," but more properly called "Mount Welling- 
ton". The house faces the south-east across the large bay on 
the east side of the lake named Hyde Bay. It has been the resi- 
dence for three generations of the Clarke family and was built 
by George Clarke, the grandfather of the present occupant, and 
opened in the year 1815. The architect was Hooker of Albany 
and the builder was William Clarke of Fort Plain. 

It is constructed of stone throughout, even the inside and 
partitions walls all being of stone, or brick. When one considers 
the period at which this house was built before the days of rail- 




1. Hyde Hall, 3. Pomeroy Place. 3. Masonic H»ll. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 177 

roads and even before the construction of the Erie Canal, when 
Albany was the nearest point of navigation,' one is struck with 
amazement that so large a building could have been erected in 
so solid, tboroug^h and complete a manner. The house is two 
stories high, in the Colonial style and over 200 feet in length. 
Later tbe present front facade of the house was added in the Em- 
pire style, 100 feet in length with two splendid rooms on either 
side of a large entrance hall. These two rooms comprise the 
present drawing and dining rooms and are the same size 40x30 
by 18 feet high. These were occupied in 1832. The masons, 
carpenters and mechanics lived on the premises while the house 
was under construction. They quarried and cut the stone in 
nearby quarries of the local limestone. They burnt the brick 
from the clay found at tbe foot of the hill, cut the timbers in 
the neighboring forest and manufactured all of the trim, win- 
dows, doors and panel work in the house. The structure is one 
of the best samples today of the thorough work that was done 
by the Americac mechanics of 100 years ago. This fine old 
American house home is most beautifully situated, overlooking 
Otsego Lake, surrounded by beautiful old trees and forest land. 
Upwards of 3000 acres belonging to the family enclose it on all 
sides and the residence is approached by three private roads 
averaging over a mile in length. George Clarke, the builder of 
this house first came to America in 1791 from England, to comply 
with the statute requiring all English born subjects who were 
minors during the War for Independence and who owned lands 
in this state subject to confiscation, to become American citi- 
zens. He inherited a very large estate in lands from his great- 
grandfather George Clarke, who was acting Governor of the 
colony from 1737 — 44 and from his great uncle George Clarke 
who was Secretary of State from 1737 to 1776, He made numer- 
ous visits to America and finally in 1809 determined to mak^ 
his permanent abode in this country. Leaving his old home,, 
Hyde Hall at Hyde, Chesnire , England and his estate there 
in the care of his half brother. Captain John Hyde one of Nel- 
son's captains, as his agent, he came to America for good, mar- 
ried the widow of Richard Cooper, brother of J. Fenimore Coop- 
er, as his second wife, and in 1814, built his new home. He had 
U^en educated at Eton College in England and was a school 
mate of Arthur Wellesley who afterward became the great Duke 



178 OLD FAMILIES AND HOUSES. 

of Wellington and it was in admiration for his former school- 
mate that he gave the name to ttie mountain at the back of his 
home. The finest portrait hanging in Hyde Hall is the por- 
trait of the Duke of Welliugton by John Trumbull. The adoption 
of the name of Hyde, by the Clarke family, came about in this 
way; George Clarke, the Colonial Governor, of New York after 
graduating from Oxford University received an appointment by 
Walpole, then prime minister of England, to the Colonial ofiBce 
in New York. He came from JSwanswick, near Bath. After 
a few years residence in New York he met and married Anne 
Hyde, the daughter of Edward Hyde, Royal Governor of North 
Carolina. She subsequently became the heiress of Hyde in Eng- 
land in her own right, and by the old English law of coverture, 
George Clarke became the owner of the estate. She died during 
his term of office as governor of this colony and was buried, 
with a public funeral, in the vault of Lord Cornburg in Trinity 
Church, New York. Ever since, this the Clarke family have been 
known as the Clarkes of Hyde. George Clarke, the builder of 
Hyde Hall, died in 1835 and his only American born son, George 
Clarke, succeeded him in his American estate. During the life 
of the late George Clarke, who died in 1889, the residence was 
permitted to fall into decay but his son, the present occupant, 
made it his home immediately after his graduation from Colum- 
bia Law School in 1880 and ever since then the place has been 
kept up and the home fully restored. In conclusion it 
may be well to say that old Hyde Hall in England was torn down 
about 60 years ago and the park in which it stood destroyed, to 
make room for coal mines which were discovered on the property, 
and the former village of Hyde is now an industrial cotton spin- 
ning suburb of Manchester. The late George Clarke died insol- 
vent and the estate was sold. The wife of the present George 
Hyde Clarke was Mary G. Carter, granddaughter of the late 
William H. Averell of Cooperstown and it was through her inher- 
itance that the old home was saved to the family. It is hoped 
that this fine old type of residence of past generations may 
continue to be a land mark tbrou'^^h many generations to come. 



THE COOPERSTOWN CENTENNIAL. 179 

Boden. 



In connection with the little cottage overlooking the river, 
still standing at the foot of Main street, it is interesting to note 
that the houses on the three corners, among the oldest in the 
village, represent three pioneer families, Ernst, Pomeroj and 
Boden, two have already been named and all have descendants 
still living in the village. 

Especial interest attaches to the name of Boden, as the fam- 
ily came originally from Burlington, New Jersey, where Judge 
Cooper was born, and from whence they moved to Cooperstown 
in 1799, and also from the fact that "Commodore" Boden, as he 
was always called, was identified with the lake in person quite 
as much as Natty Bumppo was in romance. No one who knew 
the Commodore can forget his tall, commanding figure nor his 
skill in persuading the members of the finny tribe to take his 
tempting hook. 



Placards. 

The house adjoining the Second National Bank, erected 
1796. 

The old Masonic Hall, corner of Lake and Pioneer 
streets, 1797. 

The house at the corner of Main and River streets, erected 
in 1790 and owned and occupied for some time after by John 
F. Ernst and his descendants, is believed to be the oldest house 
now standing. 

Placards on the wall at Fernleigh, Centennial Week, August 
4th to 10th, 1907. 

"This property, formerly Apple Hill, comprised about 15 
acres. On the site of the present stone house^ Richard Fenimore 
Cooper, Esquire, built a frame house in 1800. It was owned and 
occupied by Governor John A. Eix 1828 — 1831 and for half a 
century this place has been the home of the family of Edward 
Clark, Esquire." 

Near the dividing line between Miss Cooper's land, on the 



180 OLD FAMILIES AND HOUSES. 

wall of Fernleigh, was placed this placard: "Site of the law of- 
fice of Governor John A. Dix, 1828—1831." 

In front of the ofiBce of the Estates of Edward Clark and 
Alfred Corning Clark, foriuerlj the Otsego County Bank, was 
the following: "Built in 1831." 

On the old elm tree on the corner of Main and Chestnut 
streets, "Planted by the Hon. Ambrose L. Jordan, 1813." 

On the small building on Main street in the rear of the house 
on the north west corner of Main and Chestnut steets, "Law 
oflBce of the Honorable Ambrose L. Jordan, 1813 — 1820." 

Rutherford Brick House, corner of Lake and Pioneer 
streets "Built by John Miller, 1802." 

FENIMORE built about 1800. Owned and occupied by 
James Fenimore Cooper, 1814 — 1817. Later by Judge Samuel 
Nelson. 



"^J ^A 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

" 1 II mil iiii II 


k. 


014 222 367 3 K 


A 



■'':4. 



C#i; 









